Author's Note: This chapter is really short (at least, for this story). Sorry if it bothers you, but it's just the way convenient stopping points happened to fall in the story itself. You'll see what I mean soon enough. So, I hope you enjoy the story!
Neo could only laugh as he beheld the carnage from Arkadimon's attack. "Just what I expected from a Super Ultimate! What amazing power!" Hearing this, Davis couldn't help but question Neo. "Are you really going to destroy the world, Neo?" True, he had heard Neo say that he would destroy the world before, but only now did Davis actually believe that such a feat was possible. Neo at least stopped laughing, but his next words showed he hadn't changed his mind. "I told you before, I'm not just going to destroy the world. I'm going to reset it and create a new one. An Arcadia that I will rule over myself! My own utopia, a world that runs entirely according to my rules. That's why I named this monster Arkadimon. Because he is the tool that will build my Arcadia!"
Arkadimon punctuated this exclamation with another God Matrix, this time deleting the ground on the far side of Holy Angel Castle. Hideto glanced at his Digivice 01 hoping to see something about the attack that was flawed, but God Matrix seemingly didn't even have the energy drain that Dot Matrix did. Seeing this, Hideto had no doubt that Neo could easily eliminate the castle or anything else at any time, but was just choosing to play with Arkadimon's power as if it were a new toy. Hideto found himself flashing back to events he wished he could do differently, as he knew his life was now dependent entirely on the whim of a madman. By the looks on everybody else's face, he knew he wasn't alone in all of this. Even the Baby level Digimon looked crushed by failure. The only one who didn't seem to feel this way was AeroVeedramon, who was screaming in anger.
"I won't… let you… get…AWAY WITH THIS!" As he finished snarling out his message, AeroVeedramon was once again encompassed by the blue glow that signaled his overwrite was kicking in at full power. However, having seen the full power of Dragon Impulse before, Hideto knew this attempt wouldn't be enough to do anything meaningful to the Super Ultimate. He quickly turned to Davis. "You have to stop him, Davis! I know you don't want to give up, but you saw what happened last time. Omegamon tried to get killed by Dragon Impulse, and even then it wasn't enough. And AeroVeedramon's body won't be able to stand another use of the attack. You have to stop him before he kills himself!"
Davis seemed to struggle with himself for a moment before shouting to his partner. "Go, AeroVeedramon! Show him all you've got!" AeroVeedramon only responded with a yell as he turned into the light dragon again and repeatedly slammed into Arkadimon. Hideto couldn't believe what Davis was doing. "How can you let him do this? You know he won't make it!" Davis turned to Hideto with tears in his eyes. "Yes, I know he won't make it! Do you think I like that? If there was a way for me to stop this, I would do it in a heartbeat. But AeroVeedramon wouldn't stop even if I told him to. He knows what he's doing, but he'd rather die trying to save the world than sit back and die doing nothing. As his partner, the only thing I can do is support him in his decision. I hate this, but the only thing I can do to help is show I still believe in him." Turning back to the light dragon that kept ineffectively hitting the Super Ultimate, he shouted, "Keep it up, AeroVeedramon!"
AeroVeedramon probably didn't even recognize his partner's voice, being too busy hitting Arkadimon yet having no effect. After each failed hit, he would scream "I'm not done yet!" and glow even brighter before coming around for another pass, yet the Super Ultimate never took any damage. Eventually, the strain of keeping up the attack became too much for AeroVeedramon, and the light dragon burst apart into tiny droplets of light that quickly faded away, leaving no trace of AeroVeedramon anywhere.
Davis broke down crying at his partner's death. He had always thought he understood the pain TK had gone through in his fight with Devimon, but now he knew how wrong he had been. He had imagined losing a partner would be a horrible experience, but his imagination failed to capture the feeling of what it felt like to have a little piece of your heart ripped away from you. Davis tuned out Neo's laughter at the situation and focused on the happier memories he had with Veemon. With nothing left to stop Neo from testing what happened when a human was reduced to data, Davis didn't want his last thoughts to be his partner's death. Unlike TK or Ken, it didn't look like he would be getting his partner back. All he would be able to do would be hold onto his memories of Veemon for as long as he could.
Lost in happier memories, Davis didn't notice his Crest starting to glow. What he did notice were tiny little balls of light appearing throughout the sky that looked exactly like the ones that had appeared when the Dragon Impulse attack dissipated. Suddenly, Davis couldn't help but feel a little optimistic as the light began to gather together directly overhead. That slight optimism was replaced with joy as he started to make out a blue figure within the light. Veemon was coming back!
Hideto, Yolei, and Cody could only stare in shock at the sight before them. By all accounts, what they were seeing was impossible. Somehow, Davis was using his Crest to reform his partner after death. The only thing that snapped them out of the shock was the sudden addition of a new voice. "So, it's just like the ancient legend…" Turning in shock, the group saw Jijimon, Sigma, Mari, and Rei, who had apparently been carried here from the castle by a Centarumon and a Tyrannomon. Jijimon didn't seem to notice everybody's surprise at seeing him, as he quoted the legend that had been ancient even when he was born.
"At the dawn of zeroes and ones, a great light from ancient times will shine on the Dragon family. The holy light will become a sword to suppress the evil dragon. It will become a shield, giving new strength to the righteous dragon." Jijimon turned to Davis. "You really are something special. Somehow, you've managed to unlock access to a holy power that only one Digimon in all of history managed to use. The holy light of Ulforce is now restoring your partner to physical form. However, he won't be AeroVeedramon anymore. He will have taken on the mantle of the Royal Knights, and become UlforceVeedramon!"
With this, the light surrounding UlforceVeedramon faded, and Davis could see his partner's Mega form. He appeared much more humanoid, and exuded a similar aura of power to Omnimon. His wings resembled a cape more than anything else, and he was clad in a blue armor accented with gold. On each of his arms he wore a silver gauntlet, and a giant gold V dominated his chest. Davis couldn't help but laugh. Only Veemon would find a way to turn death into something this cool.
While everybody was shocked by UlforceVeedramon, Sigma questioned Jijimon further about the nature of Ulforce. The ancient Digimon paused a second before responding. "Well, when I was studying the overwrite of ancient types, I came across an interesting passage. In ancient types, the overwrite led to near extinction as their rough temperaments caused violent changes in data. But in one example, there was also an opposite effect among overwrites. A holy overwrite, born from a strong heart which desired to protect the ones it loved. This was Ulforce, a healing power that strengthened the body and led to evolution!"
Neo could only glare at the bugs that refused to be deleted. "Can't you bugs do anything without relying on a miracle to save you?" UlforceVeedramon only smiled back. "Sorry, Miracles are kind of our thing. Everybody else put their faith in me, so I couldn't just give up on them. After all, it's the ones who never give up that shape the future!" Neo shook his head. "Those are pretty words, but nothing else. Who cares about Ulforce? It's no match for the power of a Super Ultimate. You have no place in my world! I'll just delete you with God Matrix!"
UlforceVeedramon disappeared before Neo could even finish his command, leaving everybody else in shock. AeroVeedramon had been the fastest Digimon they had ever seen. Now he was even faster, to the point where he was impossible to see while moving. Knowing his partner must still be there somewhere, Davis shouted encouragement. "This guy may be huge, but that just means an even bigger blind spot. Find it and take this thing down!" UlforceVeedramon sped up behind Arkadimon and prepared to launch an attack when the mass of tentacles that made up Arkadimon's body suddenly sprang to life and wrapped around the surprised Royal Knight. Neo merely laughed. "Don't let appearances fool you. Arkadimon has no blind spot! Now, Dystopia Lances!"
Keeping UlforceVeedramon wrapped in a ball, Arkadimon extended countless other tentacles that had shifted into spears at the trapped Royal Knight. However, rather than becoming a pincushion, UlforceVeedramon shouted out, "Ulforce Saber!" and a blue blade extended from the silver gauntlet on his right arm, easily slicing through his prison with more than enough time to dodge the Dystopia Lances. However, even with UlforceVeedramon's speed, Arkadimon just had too many tentacles to dodge them all, and UlforceVeedramon's leg got caught. He sliced through the tentacles with ease, but they had served their purpose, as Neo laughed while shouting "God Matrix!" UlforceVeedramon knew he would be fast enough to get out of the way, but he wasn't sure what the limits of God Matrix's range were. Besides, if he dodged, the blast would hit more of the Digital World, permanently eliminating it. So, instead of dodging, he held out his left bracelet and shouted, "Tensegrity Shield!"
Neo was certain he had just defeated UlforceVeedramon, but then he saw the Royal Knight floating unharmed within a shimmering web of blue energy. "What? Impossible! How could he survive a direct hit of God Matrix?" Even Jijimon, the one who knew the most about overwrites, was stunned at how the barrier hadn't disintegrated when struck with God Matrix. It was only when Sigma analyzed the attack that he revealed the reason. "That's just incredible. That shield is changing its zeroes and ones faster than God Matrix could absorb them! It's the perfect defense!"
Davis was ecstatic at his partner's new abilities, but he couldn't fight a sudden feeling of fatigue coming over him. It was almost as if something was draining his energy. Glancing down, he saw his Crest was still glowing, and guessed the cause. As AeroVeedramon, the overwrite had taken so much energy that it turned against his partner's body. Now, UlforceVeedramon had to be expending even more energy, yet it was healing him instead of hurting him. All that energy had to come from somewhere, and Davis guessed he was providing a part of it. It was great that he could help his partner at a much greater level, but Davis also knew this could lead to drawbacks. After all, humans tended to have much less energy than Digimon did, so he could very well end up being a liability instead of an asset if UlforceVeedramon was forced into a long battle.
Knowing he had to avoid a long fight, Davis decided to goad Neo into making a mistake. "What now, Neo? I'd say your trump card was a total dud!" This seemed to get to Neo, as he started ranting against both Davis and UlforceVeedramon. "Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP! Holy overwrite? Ulforce? Shut up! I refuse to acknowledge your existence! Dystopia Lances!" Arkadimon's tentacles rushed in from all directions to skewer UlforceVeedramon, but instead of trying to dodge the attack, the Royal Knight decided to blow right through it. Charging golden energy into the V-shaped piece of armor on his chest, he called out "Ray of Victory!" The golden beam looked similar to Magnamon's alternate Magna Explosion attack, but this seemed to have even more power. It not only destroyed all of Arkadimon's tentacles in its path, but it managed to cut through the tentacles that connected the upper and lower halves of Arkadimon's body. The abomination let out another horrible scream before stitching itself back together, but while Davis and the others cheered UlforceVeedramon couldn't help but feel like something was wrong. There was no way the Ray of Victory should have inflicted that much damage to Arkadimon in this form. There was another factor in play here, and UlforceVeedramon didn't like the feeling that he was missing something.
Davis didn't notice UlforceVeedramon's hesitation and wanted to finish the fight, so he ordered UlforceVeedramon to attack again. The Royal Knight once again brought out his Ulforce Saber, figuring that a close range attack would give him a better picture of what Arkadimon was up to. As he dodged around more strikes of Dystopia Lances, he heard Davis shouting to Neo. "Now do you see the power that comes from trying to defend the world instead of destroying it? This is Ulforce- the strength of the future we believed in!" Just as Davis finished speaking, UlforceVeedramon saw and opening and dashed forward, managing to sever Arkadimon's left arm with his Ulforce Saber.
UlforceVeedramon dashed back to his partner's side before Arkadimon could even begin reattaching its arm. "Listen, Davis, something isn't right here. I know I'm strong, but there is no way I should be able to do this much damage with my attacks. It's like Arkadimon's defense plummeted compared to his Mega form when he Digivolved, except he was a lot tougher than this when he was shrugging off my Dragon Impulse after Neo used the Digimental. There's a big factor we're all missing here."
Davis nodded to his partner. "If you think something's up, I'll believe you. To me, it just looks like you're strong enough to hurt him, but you'd know your own strength better than anyone. Unfortunately, I'm not too sure we'll be able to do anything about it. I think I'm providing a lot of the energy for you to maintain that form. Right now, I feel like I've just played a doubleheader without ever being subbed out, so I'm not too sure how much longer I'll be able to last. We'll just have to smash him quickly before whatever is causing this becomes a problem to us."
UlforceVeedramon nodded, but while he had been taking the time to talk with his partner, Neo had resumed his recent habit of ranting to himself. "Ulforce? That's stupid. I won't accept it… this world is impossible… it's a bug… it has to be a bug… it's all a bug!" Hopping onto the back of Gryphonmon, Neo sent one more command to Arkadimon. "Destroy the bugs, Arkadimon! Smash the world to smithereens!"
Arkadimon responded with his usual obedience, throwing God Matrix around seemingly at random. Hideto cursed and jumped backwards as the ground a foot away suddenly disappeared, leaving the DigiDestined and their allies standing on a cliff looking down into a blank abyss. Rei called out for her brother to stop, but he was too far gone to listen to her now. He only kept chanting to himself, "I won't accept it… I won't accept it! I won't acknowledge these bugs. I won't acknowledge this unpredictable world! I won't allow unpredictable accidents into MY WORLD!"
Hideto saw the significance of the final sentence. "Accidents? Neo… you…" He trailed off for a little bit before starting again. "Is Rei's accident really the reason for all this? Did your hatred for the irrationality of the real world make you try to build a Digital World where tragedies never happen like you told us, or are you just in this for power?" Hideto knew Neo had fallen more than a bit into madness by this point, but how he answered this question would show if any part of the current Neo was still Hideto's friend, or if Neo had completely lost himself among Daemon's influence channeled through Arkadimon.
Rei was somewhat torn on how she wanted Neo to respond. If he said this was all for her, it meant her brother was still in there somewhere, but also that she was partially responsible for all the horrible things that had happened to the Digital World. If he said he just wanted power, she wouldn't be as guilty, but it also meant the person she knew as her brother may be gone forever. When Neo responded with an evil smirk and the words, "Rei… our world will soon be complete," before ordering Arkadimon to eliminate all the intruders, Rei quickly realized she had been wrong. The fact that Neo still believed he was doing this for her was worse than Neo being gone forever. Now, she had to deal with the guilt for Neo's actions as well as the fact that her brother seemed to have grown to the point where he was willing to kill everything to reach his goals. Regardless of the outcome, she had lost the brother who had cared about others.
The shock of all this was too much for Rei to process at once, and her legs gave out beneath her. Unfortunately for her, this coincided with another God Matrix from Arkadimon that destabilized the section of the cliff she was standing on. Hideto screamed Rei's name and jumped forward to catch her, but he was too late. As Rei plummeted towards the abyss, only one thought crossed her mind. She had been wondering how to live with the guilt of Neo's actions, but now it looked like she wouldn't have to worry about that…
Hearing Hideto's scream, UlforceVeedramon turned towards the DigiDestined and immediately started flying towards the falling Rei. At the same time, Neo saw his sister's plight and immediately pushed all thoughts of fighting aside. Unfortunately, Arkadimon was still acting on previous orders and trying to kill UlforceVeedramon. With desperation in his voice, Neo yelled out, "Arkadimon, stop it!" When Arkadimon responded by reaching out and grabbing UlforceVeedramon with his tentacles, Neo almost lost it. Even though he knew he was too far away to make a difference, he had Gryphonmon start diving after Rei, all the while berating Arkadimon. "I said stop it, not stop him! Make yourself useful and catch Rei if you need to grab something! Just stop attacking!"
Arkadimon seemed to hear the stop command, but he didn't release his hold on UlforceVeedramon. The Royal Knight didn't exactly have the patience to wait for Arkadimon to finally listen to Neo's command, and brought out his Ulforce Saber to once again free himself from Arkadimon's grip. Not wanting the abomination to grab him again before he could catch Rei, he flew up and delivered a powerful punch to Arkadimon's face before accelerating to his full speed and chasing after Rei. He caught up to her easily, but he waited a few seconds before catching her in order to match her falling speed and gently bring her to a stop. He didn't want to catch Rei only to have her break her neck with the sudden stop, after all. Once he had a secure hold on Rei, he flew back up and set her on the ground next to the others, only to glare at another recent arrival: Neo, who had just hopped off of Gryphonmon.
The hostility in UlforceVeedramon's glare would have paralyzed any Digimon below the Ultimate level, yet Neo completely ignored the Royal Knight as he walked up to his sister. "Rei… are you alright? Please be okay… I don't know what I'd do if you weren't okay…" Rei only looked at the ground dejectedly. "Maybe it would be better if I wasn't okay… it's my fault the world's being destroyed… I just can't stand it… maybe if I wasn't here, all this destruction would finally stop…"
Neo was once again racked by a sudden severe headache, but apart from grabbing his head he didn't change his conversation with Rei. "Why? Why would you think something as stupid as that? An accident made you unable to walk, and I'm trying to build a world where things like that can't happen! You'll be able to live in a perfect world, Rei! Nobody would ever have to be sad again!" Rei could see her brother struggling with something inside himself to keep talking to her, but he kept persevering. Seeing this, Rei knew she was actually getting a chance to talk to her brother for real, instead of what he had become since coming to the Digital World. With what might be her last opportunity to get through to him, she knew she had to make this count.
"Neo, I don't want that world. The accident isn't the worst thing that's happened to me. The thing that made me the saddest was the way you and Hideto changed after the accident! I just wanted to be with you guys again the way you were, but you couldn't see that! I don't care if I never walk again, so long as I get my brother and my best friend back!"
This seemed to be getting through to Neo, but unfortunately Davis chose this moment to add his own thoughts on the matter. "Why would you think Rei was depressed about the accident? I only traveled with her a short time, and even I could tell she was an optimistic person. If she didn't despair about her life, why would you? Hideto said you wanted to be a doctor, so why don't you help her get better that way instead of doing all of this?"
Where Rei had brought about a positive change in Neo, Davis's words seemed to send him spiraling back into anger. "Shut up! What would you know about any of this? You must be the luckiest bastard in the world. By some coincidence, your partner just happens to Digivolve, and by some coincidence you and your friends happen to keep winning… not all of us get every single lucky break! You couldn't possibly understand my situation!"
Rei saw her brother slipping away once again, and reached out to drag him back. "I don't think it was a coincidence, Neo. You should understand more than anyone. When they were fighting you, no matter how tough it was, they tried their best and didn't give up. That's why the future lent them a bit of strength!" As Neo fell to his knees and grasped his head, Hideto also walked up to his friend. "Neo… you took that doctor's words about Rei's legs to heart and despaired more than any of us, didn't you?"
As Neo knelt on the ground, he seemed to finally realize exactly what he had been doing this whole time. "I… you mean… I stole others' future in order to build a future for Rei…?" As he said this, he seemed to be surrounded by a dark energy, and with a wrenching scream black lightning bolts flew from him to Arkadimon. The darkness shrouded the Super Ultimate from view, but everybody was focused on Neo panting on the ground as the Digimental fell from his hands and stopped glowing. Jijimon saw this and immediately understood what it meant.
"So, the Digimental lost its power. It can only be activated by a person's pure heart, which is why I was so surprised that Neo could use it in the first place. But it looks like Neo's feelings for Rei were true, so the Digimental gave him power. Neo, now that you finally realized that's not the way to make her happy, the Digimental has stopped feeding Arkadimon. It should revert back to its Mega form, and its threat to the Digital World will be over."
Everybody but Neo turned to face Arkadimon, expecting to see its Mega form. However, even if it hadn't reverted, they were sure the fight was over. Arkadimon had never been able to act on its own, always needing Neo's commands. Now that Neo was done fighting, Arkadimon would just stand still. Even if Arkadimon's very existence posed a threat to the Digital World, it would now be a trivial manner for UlforceVeedramon to destroy the once fearsome monster.
However, all these thoughts suddenly turned to panic when the dark lightning surrounding Arkadimon shot out and struck UlforceVeedramon. Though the Ulforce started healing the damage, Davis didn't have enough energy to maintain the holy overwrite, and he promptly collapsed. With UlforceVeedramon still under attack and now bearing the full burden of maintaining his healing factor, it wasn't long until he too succumbed and reverted to DemiVeemon. Before anybody could react to the quick change in the situation, a tentacle shot out from Arkadimon and grabbed Rei. The bulky Super Ultimate then started flying away, leaving the stunned DigiDestined with no option other than watch as their friend was kidnapped.
The first person to react in any way to the sudden defeat was Neo, who managed to pull himself off the ground. "So that's how you want to play, you bastard? Well, if you wanted me pissed, you got it! And I assure you, you will not be happy about it!" Hideto understood why Neo would be angry, but he wasn't sure who exactly he was talking to. "Uh, Neo, I know Arkadimon just kidnapped Rei, but I don't think that monster was really capable of wanting anything. Why would it want to make you angry?"
Neo shook his head. "Not Arkadimon. That monster can only follow orders. I'm pissed at Daemon! That bastard wormed his way inside my mind as soon as Arkadimon absorbed him, and I didn't even notice it except for a brief flash the first time I fought you and then just now when I finally managed to push him out. I'm going to kill him for what he's done!"
Sigma merely looked confused. "Kill him? I thought you already did that?" Neo gritted his teeth. "I don't have time for this. Gryphonmon, let's…" Neo turned to where his transportation had been sitting up until Arkadimon's attack, but the Mega level had disappeared. Neo punched the ground in frustration. "Great, as if I hadn't been screwed over by luck enough since coming to this world. Fine, I guess I'll just walk there myself!"
Neo got up off of the ground and started stumbling away, clearly not fully recovered after freeing himself from Daemon's mental control. Mari was the first one to cut him off, and she tackled him before he could do something idiotic trying to make up for his recent mistakes. "Listen, I get it. You're pissed, Rei's in trouble, and Daemon needs to pay. But what do you think you can do about it? You're not going to be able to just walk up to the Super Ultimate level that Daemon is controlling and talk them both to death. You can't really do anything on your own."
Neo pushed Mari off of him. "I said I was pissed, not stupid. I assure you, Daemon may have manipulated my mind, but he didn't take away any of my competence as a Tamer. I'm going to pick up something to bring me from a zero percent chance of success to a five percent chance. Hell, maybe if these people have been right about the bond between human and Digimon, I can make it a ten percent chance. We'll see if this whole thing about connecting with a partner really gives a boost in strength. After all, there's only one Digimon that refused to be deleted enough that it could be considered my true partner."
Neo continued walking away, only to be stopped once again when Hideto grabbed his shoulder. "Fine then, go to the Metal Factory and pick up your partner. But don't think you're going to do this alone. We're going to get everybody back to Holy Angel Castle to heal first, and then all of us are charging in. You aren't the only one who wants to save Rei, after all."
Author's Note: Well, this turned out a bit different than V-Tamer did. Sure, Neo has his transition to the good side (sort of. He at least finally acknowledged what he did was wrong, which is a start). Of course, with Arkadimon acting under Daemon's influence, he's a little too focused on saving Rei to really examine his actions. We also see Davis finally get to the Mega level! And even with Arkadimon taking more damage than he should have, I hope you see why it took until now to get UlforceVeedramon into play. Well, the first reason is I was following V-Tamer, the second reason is this guy is just too powerful to go up against anything short of a Demon Lord. You know, with the healing factor, Tensegrity Shield, and supposedly moving so fast nothing can follow its movements. Not overpowered at all… luckily, all the remaining enemies are just as overpowered at this point.
Next chapter sees the end of this story! And where this chapter was pretty short (not counting the author's notes) the next one is really long- almost a double chapter. Still, the start of it had to all go together instead of me splitting off part of it and putting it here, and then I felt cheap spending so much prep time without the payoff of seeing the battle that required it. Because even with UlforceVeedramon, the DigiDestined are going to need a lot of help taking the fight to Arkadimon. So, I hope you enjoyed this, and I'll upload the finale tomorrow!