Ryo is BSOD'd hard during all of the fourth game, and indications are that it started not at the beginning of the fourth game but the big reveal that everyone had been lying to him in the third.
Being around Wormmon makes a huge difference in how functional Ken is after his own BSOD: it's made clear that he was hit hard, suicidal levels, and… well. There's a lot of stuff implied about the psychological effects of partner bonds in the Adventure continuity that really needs exploring. Not just their effects on the Digimon (Tailmon and Millenniummon imply some drastic stuff), but their effects on the humans.
In Tamers continuity bonds are built, but Adventure partner bonds are hardwired. If I manage to beat a certain random 22K into an actual fic, then I will be exploring the difference a little more. It is not normal to meet a member of an alien species and be willing to die for them in less than thirty minutes. The Adventure kids have a level of physical affection and familiarity with their partners on the level of immediate family members pretty darn instantly, and since they really wouldn't have decided to act that way (bar Mimi, who is discussed as unusually willing to just walk up to her friends and hug them), that's a pretty strong subconscious drive at work.
Ryo was talking as much as he was in Ch. 2 because that subconscious awareness of safety was reducing the severity of the PTSD, the way being around Wormmon made Ken pull out of silence and guilt instead of the reminder and fear of hurting Wormmon forcing him deeper into it.
There was so much about what had changed in the almost four years to stun him and remind him again that he'd been cast out of his own time. The two weeks would have seemed like an eternity even if he didn't have the threat of MoonMillenniummon hanging over his head. For the first half of the fourteenth day, he watched his new D-Terminal. Then he started calling around to everyone else, just to be sure.
Tailmon was the one to say, "Maybe he wants you to find him."
To go speak to MoonMillenniummon of his own free will? Not that it really was, because he knew that if he didn't act, then the evil god would try that hostage idea, or something worse. Daisuke was this close to dragging Ken into the woods or something without their Digivices or anything that could be used to track them so the evil god couldn't hurt his friend again, and Ryo would probably go crazy with worry if he couldn't check in to be sure that Ken hadn't been taken.
Koushiro had shown him the digi-port interface, so it wasn't that hard to get to the mountain MoonMillenniummon's floating continent had turned into when it crashed.
Picking his way up to the top of the cracked crystal that used to be the palace, he found a mass of darkness. Smaller then the MoonMillenniummon he'd fought twice, even the body inside that great dark crystal, but he knew his old enemy even before he uncoiled enough to raise one head to glance at him.
"Well?" he asked. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
That head stared at him silently. Ryo had no idea how to read those red eyes.
Was he sulking? Or just putting the onus on Ryo, making him be the one who had to do this even though he didn't care and was sick of having to do it? "Ken's still getting As," he said, deciding to start off with a topic MoonMillenniummon wouldn't care about to see if it made him speak up to change the subject. "He probably will up through college, you read ahead a lot." Probably so he didn't have to waste time paying attention in class. "He says it's like that philosophical question about the man dreaming he was a butterfly, that it's weird not terrifying, but most of that is probably because he's too busy comforting Wormmon to worry about himself."
Both heads rose up now, the serpent regarding him through four red slits. Trained instinct was to check for exits, to notice that he hadn't brought any Digimon to defend him what was he thinking.
He didn't back down, even knowing that just because MoonMillenniummon's current form wasn't immense, that didn't mean he was any less powerful.
Right, he had better get this stated for the record. "Tailmon told me that based on how obsessed she was with Hikari there is absolutely no way you're not spying on me 24/7, especially if you're staying an entire world away and would need to know if I was attacked right away," to get to the real world in time, time god or no time god. "And there is no way I can get you to knock it off, so just not in the bathroom. Digimon don't care," and he hoped Millenniummon didn't care, "but humans do."
The internet, wow.
He could try to make a joke of it, but the impulse was still to run when the two-headed serpent slithered a little closer, testing to see how he'd react.
If Ryo laughed, there was too much risk that laughter would end up hysterical. He'd gone without seeing his parents for months at a time twice, but for him to be the one cast forward in time for years, while almost everyone else forgot him?
They were made to forget the danger they were in. The evil god had snuck into the middle of the other Chosen Children. Millenniummon could have eliminated them, one by one, but that would have told Ryo that there was someone out there eliminating them. Like what he'd said about Osamu. All of them were camouflage for Ken: who would expect to find the ultimate evil in a group of heroes?
Who would expect the ultimate evil to be the partner of a Chosen Child? If Ryo even was a real Chosen, when he hadn't had a partner and still didn't have a digivice.
He sat down cross-legged. That put the dragon's heads above his own, but he was already aware that MoonMillenniummon was bigger and more powerful than he was.
The two-headed dragon moving another half-meter closer, watching him for his reaction, felt far too much like he was being stalked by something waiting to see if he was dumb enough to let it get within range to strike. "You're not going to say anything?" he asked, folding his arms.
"They are watching you," the Digimon said without opening either of his mouths.
"I know," Ryo said. Back-up ready to gate in or get him out of here was a no-brainer if he wasn't going to come in with an army.
One of those heads dipped: as long as no one else was spying on his partner against his partner's will, apparently. "Ask your questions, then."
"I don't know if I have questions I can't figure out the answers to. Why you'd use a sweet kid like Ken like that: you tried to take over the Digital World," among other things. He'd brainwashed Digimon and tried to murder Chosen Children, so why would he draw the line at brainwashing a Chosen Child? "Why you didn't conquer both worlds while I was gone? Gennai explained about my Crest. If there's no plan that's foolproof when I'm on the other side, then you needed me not to fight you."
The serpent chuckled, and Ryo heard something laugh with delight, a cackling, chittering laugh. Something grey dashed in from the side, heading not for Ryo but for MoonMillenniummon, diving into his body.
A grey head with green eyes and two antennae poked out of the side of the serpent's body. "Play?" it asked with a wide, smiling mouth.
The neck on the right twisted around, and its head dipped down to bite the Keramon on the back of the neck, or the bundle of claw-tipped tentacles that served for a neck, torso and legs, and lift him out of the bodiless Digimon's insubstantial frame. That raised the question of how the head was solid enough to pick him up, but Ryo was used to Millenniummon cheating.
He released Keramon a few centimeters from the ground, leaving the rookie hovering there and looking up at him grinning. That head continued to regard the Keramon, while the other examined Ryo.
There was only one Keramon, unless MoonMillenniummon had made more. Either way, this was an artificial Digimon that digivolved into Diablomon. Diablomon had devoured a lot of the data in the world's computer systems and hacked into military weapons. It took Omegamon to stop him, even if like his creator he wasn't exactly dead. Was this a threat?
Keramon's green eyes narrowed: had he remembered Ryo from when they fought?
Ryo shifted, putting a hand on the ground in case he had to jump to his feet to dodge an attack.
"Run along, pet," MoonMillenniummon told the rookie, nudging him with the unhorned head to get the artificial Digimon's attention. "I've told you, your play is too rough for humans yet. Don't you have a treasure to guard?"
That head rotated towards Ryo, and an instant later Keramon darted into the crevice between three fallen chunks of crystal.
"A treasure?" Ryo asked. Something that Diablomon thought the Chosen Children would want to destroy?
MoonMillenniummon chuckled. "Well, in Keramon's eyes it is. Digimon are such pathetic creatures, but it seems I've grown used to having an adoring little pet. At least my own creation is a little more suitable, but he is still no substitute for you."
Ryo waited, but his nemesis said nothing more, simply watching him, pleased by Ryo's presence and his own secrets.
He groaned, knowing that, "You're not just going to tell me what your Plan B is."
"Of course not," MoonMillenniummon agreed. "Why arrange a single plan when instead I can arrange ideal circumstances?"
Why wasn't he gathering an army and - "You've already conquered the Digital World."
"Yes, I have all the control over the Digital World I wish," the serpent said, pleased that Ryo had seen it. "To quote Wallace: Bow before me, for I am Root. Any alteration I wish to make will be made, and neither god nor priest could override my authority. As before, the only one who can stop me is you."
"Eventually the Digital World won't need the spires anymore."
The darkness laughed. "They have replaced the Four Holy Beasts' Destiny Stones. The Digital World has always needed a god to regulate and preserve it. I suppose if they were truly desperate, the Chosen Children could drive enough Digimon to despair to recreate Apocalymon and see if he would be willing to help them."
Even Ryo knew that wasn't going to happen and he hadn't had anything to do with Apocalymon. "You do still have a hostage," he said. "It's the entire Digital World."
"Only the Digital World? The network exists simultaneously in both the human and Digital Worlds, and the human world will only continue to grow more dependent upon the network. I have not taken control, but that doesn't mean I do not have it. That was my goal from the beginning, until Agumon and destiny summoned you to oppose me. The worlds are mine, and everything in them I care to have for my own… except for you." He chuckled. "We stand upon a high mountain, and you are the Child of Miracles, the other half of the now-supreme God: shall I offer you all the kingdoms of the worlds? All these things I will give you."
In exchange for Ryo becoming his pet? "Big words for the king of a pile of rubble."
"I have surpassed the need for intimidating monuments to my power – although that did not stop the Four Holy Beasts from demanding elaborate temples, true. Exploring the crevices entertains my pet. Shall I program you a palace, a temple to the Child of Miracles and the God who presides over the past, present and future of all the Dimensions?"
The dusty ground Ryo sat on became a plush carpet, deep enough he felt himself sink into it almost a centimeter.
"Not happening," he said, refusing to show any fear. Honestly, Millenniummon was already ridiculously powerful enough that being able to edit the Digital World in realtime (or realtime from Ryo's perspective, but when Millenniummon could make time pass for himself at any rate he wanted the distinction was just academic) didn't make much difference. If he hadn't already been able to do that and just hadn't bothered when he had timegod powers.
"Yes: why should you bother to give your blessings to the unworthy? Why meddle in their affairs, come to their aid when they are enslaved and cry out for justice?" MoonMillenniummon's smirks were evil smirks. "I could have converted both worlds into utopias just as easily as wastelands, granted humans freedom from the ravages of time. I left Ken memories of the accounts and patents in his name, but that is only a fraction of the wealth I possess. Imagine what could be done with it. You are a hero, Ryo. I know I can't tempt you with the power of darkness, the ability to rule and crush your enemies, but what of love and light? I know how hard you've worked to gain the power to bring justice and save the innocent."
"So join you, and you'll start throwing your weight around?" Nope, not an incentive.
"For your sake, and your sake alone, I have refrained from destroying the Chosen Children. For your sake, I have preserved the Digital World instead of reformatting it."
"You wouldn't have even thought about doing either of those things if you weren't evil. I did what Mimi said because it was the fastest way to get you to leave Ken alone, but you don't deserve a reward for undoing something you should never have done in the first place."
The tip of that dark tail twitched on the ground thoughtfully. "True. It seems I am still attempting to buy your affection, simply in different coin. You are my partner: you love was promised to me in the instant of my creation. I have all that I wanted, but not what I was programmed to crave."
"Well, I came to the Digital World, and saved it, and everyone else had partners like Agumon and Wormmon. You don't get to talk about being cheated when you're the one who captured everyone and brainwashed people. I had to fight you because of what you did! As long as you're evil, I'll have to stop you."
"So that is your judgment as well…"
Oh, crap. The atmosphere had changed, and Ryo did not like it. It felt less like Millenniummon was stalking him, intending to pounce now, but the sense of menace hadn't gone away, only gotten worse as the god pulled back his heads to consider whatever he was considering as he watched Ryo just as closely. Whatever it was, it was nothing good. "As well as what?"
"That we will simply have to battle each other eternally, because my programming will not let me see you as just one more of the vermin. I have had four years to study the bonds between partners. I cannot free my mind from this obsession even with all the techniques at my command, and it is no longer possible for us to have any relationship other than enemies. When I awoke to find you already there to kill me, I threw you into the future to give myself time without your captivating presence to devise a solution. I posed as someone else, someone it was still possible for you to care for, but even that…" Was not enough. "The entire Digital World is in my grasp. I could tighten my claws around it, and you would spend your eternal life struggling to pry them lose. You would come to face me again, and again, all your thoughts and all your days focused on me, as my core longs for you."
"Don't you dare blame me for this," Ryo said, clenching his fists. "The Four Holy Beasts knew, didn't they? That was why they lied to me like that, why they didn't think I'd care about the deaths of Digimon: because I had to be evil, I had to only be pretending I cared about anyone, if my Digimon partner was you."
"That hatred and anger: yes, the desire for revenge will drive you to seek me out again and again, no matter how many times you are defeated," Millenniummon said, pleased. "The obsession that grips me: if I cannot have the love it desires, then I will force an equally passionate obsession upon you, so the flames of your rage will warm me.
"Yes," the serpent said, entranced. Ryo watched as his nemesis moved closer, looming over him, savoring the sight of him. "If you will not long for me, then long for my blood: let me taste your bloodlust, Ryo, until it consumes you as you have consumed me."
"No!" Ryo ordered, fingers digging into the carpet. He wanted to shake, but he wouldn't let this Digimon see that this was affecting him. The wrongness of it. This, this was his partner who wanted Ryo to hate him? Was he right… No. What mattered was that Ryo wasn't letting him take over the Digital World and enslave everyone. Not now, not ever.
"No?" Really? Did he really think that he could keep MoonMillenniummon from pressing his buttons? Did he think he could stay calm as thousands were slaughtered? The evil god was too amused to be angered by Ryo's refusal to give him what he wanted.
"No." No, he wouldn't let more and more Digimon suffer and die because of their battles. It was a good thing he'd had those two weeks, to speak to Tailmon and think of something. He hadn't liked it, but until now, maybe he just hadn't wanted to face how necessary it was. "You can't make me join you, but I'll let you buy my time. I'll see you for an hour, every day, as long as you don't hurt anyone. You know that if I have to fight you, I won't come until I've trained Digimon that have a chance to beat you, and freeing Digimon would be a lot more important than… You want me to fight you? Well, if that's what you want, then I won't want to do you any favors!"
That dark gaze examined him, before conceding that this was, "Acceptable. I will not require that you do anything other than be in my presence," the serpent told him, coiling his tail to settle in place instead of moving closer. "Your absence gnaws at me. Practicing with these pets and indulging in fantasies of you can only soothe, not sate. Perhaps if I am fortunate familiarity will even breed contempt, and I will not longer be forced to care about anything but your safety." Those heads ducked, a private smile. "Of course, I doubt my programming will allow that, when it would be so unfortunate for you…"
With that parting threat, MoonMillenniummon curved and dove into the earth and crystal beneath them like a Seadramon. The bodiless god's passing left the ground undisturbed: Ryo wished he could say the same for himself.