Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
When Cherrymon finished her Digivolution, the DigiDestined were all taken aback. While part of the surprise was that they had unlocked a Mega form at the exact time needed to survive, the main cause was Cherrymon's newest form. After all, TK, Kari, Mimi, and Sora all had some bad memories featuring the same hammer-wielding marionette before them. Still, considering the situation, having a Dark Master on their side might actually be the best thing that could have happened to them. While Cherrymon's Digivolution caused the Illusion Mist to disappear, Puppetmon now had an ability that would allow her to fight back against BlackWarGreymon and BlackMetalGarurumon. Calling forth a bunch of metal strings, she tied up her two opponents and slammed them into each other before throwing them further away from the DigiDestined.
"Wow," TK said, "I never thought I'd be glad to see Puppetmon force WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon to fight again. Remind me never to get on Palmon's bad side, since I think once is more than enough when it comes to getting kidnapped by a Puppetmon to 'play'."
"You know," Puppetmon responded, "if you want to avoid getting on a girl's bad side, you really shouldn't start off by comparing her to a lonely, sadistic, and evil Digimon from your past. If we weren't already friends, I might just take offense to that. Anyway, don't start celebrating yet. This is my first time in this form, so I'm quite a bit weaker than the Dark Master we fought earlier, and if you remember, he went down in one hit from MetalGarurumon. I don't really like my chances of winning here. Especially since they just got free of my strings. Not good- Puppet Pummel!"
Swinging her hammer against the ground, Puppetmon created a large explosion that knocked her two opponents back into the ground after they had charged toward her. Before the smoke cleared, she once again used her strings, this time to unceremoniously fling the DigiDestined to a safer location. "Sorry about that, but I'm really not sure if keeping you in the same place for too long is a smart idea. Karatenmon, have you chipped those two out of the ice yet?"
Karatenmon sadly shook her head. "I don't know exactly what is in BlackMetalGarurumon's ice, but whatever it is; it just causes my swords to bounce off without leaving a dent. I'm afraid the only way to free them is going to be beating BlackMetalGarurumon. So, how about we team up on him and try to take him out before BlackWarGreymon causes any damage?"
Puppetmon nodded. "I think that might be our best bet. And I can at least ensure BlackWarGreymon stays out of the fight for a while." Having settled on a plan, the two Digimon rushed towards their opponents, with Karatenmon using her Feather Flare attack as a distraction to help them cover the distance without being stopped. Puppetmon then strung up BlackWarGreymon and used him as a weapon, mimicking his Dramon Killer attack by continually slashing at BlackMetalGarurumon. While BlackMetalGarurumon attempted to dodge his ally's attacks, Karatenmon added her own Harmony Swords to the equation, using her ability to read BlackMetalGarurumon's heart in order to predict where he would dodge and thus allowing her to land in multiple hits. Even with the level difference and his armor, she knew repeated hits would eventually lead to his defeat, and she would be able to dodge any of his retaliatory attacks.
Unfortunately for Karatenmon, BlackMetalGarurumon grew tired of her game, and launched his Blizzard Wolf Claw attack yet again. While Karatenmon had predicted the attack coming, it did not help her predict the path of the missiles. Because of this, she had to stop her attack and focus all of her energy on not being trapped within another icy prison. After avoiding all the blows, she faced BlackMetalGarurumon again, and tried provoking him to make him lose his focus and allow Puppetmon to hit him.
"Wow, that was actually somewhat smart of you, using an attack I wouldn't be able to fully see coming. If I didn't know better, I'd say you might actually be using your brain for once. Did your new robed master give you a bit longer leash than Lilithmon did? Still, it doesn't matter. You'll never be able to hit me with attacks like that."
MetalGarurumon gave a strange evil chuckle before responding. "Who said I was aiming for you?" Suddenly, Karatenmon felt her wings get slashed, and as she fell from the sky, she saw that BlackWarGreymon had been the one to deliver the blow. Berating herself for focusing too much on BlackMetalGarurumon and not focusing on her surroundings, she plummeted to the ground and noticed a line of icebergs along the path that Puppetmon had been using her strings. Apparently, BlackMetalGarurumon had used his attack to destroy Puppetmon's bindings and free BlackWarGreymon while at the same time trapping Puppetmon in a cage of ice. Karatenmon painfully hit the ground and was immediately hit with BlackMetalGarurumon's Freezing Breath attack, freezing her solid and leaving the DigiDestined in shock. All four of their partners had just been taken out of the fight, and now they were at the mercy of a being that was attacking them using their own friends. As they prepared for the end, an explosion rang out, and looking to the source, the DigiDestined saw a battered yet still standing Puppetmon wielding her hammer. She ran towards the DigiDestined, but as she came closer it was obvious she was in very rough shape, with multiple areas of her body covered in small patches of ice and other areas being slightly charred as a side effect of the explosion she had used to free herself.
"Well," Puppetmon sighed, "I guess being a Mega Digimon has its advantages, but I'm not sure how much longer I can hold on. You four need to get out of here. I might not have a chance of winning, but you'll always be able to find me, Patamon, Biyomon, and Gatomon at Primary village if we get destroyed. We wouldn't be so lucky if they hit you. I'll hold them off as long as I can, just get out of here!"
The DigiDestined all objected to her plan, with Mimi breaking down into tears, TK flashing back to Patamon's death against Devimon, and Kari distraught over the thought of losing so many friends. However, while those three grew depressed, Sora grew defiant. "No, I don't think we're going to do that. Either we all leave or we all stay. Besides, you're too badly hurt to do much of anything in terms of withstanding attacks. If you really want to hold them off, you should get your strings ready. You broke out of the ice while nobody else could, so maybe we need a Mega to get free. Unfortunately, Karatenmon and I don't have the greatest track record with this, but we'll manage just fine. She'll have you to guide her, and I'll have Mimi to slap me back into my right state of mind if I go too far."
Puppetmon looked skeptical. "Yeah, that could work, but are you really sure you'll be able to get Karatenmon to Digivolve? Getting to Mega is hard work, and Love is harder to put into darkness than Sincerity."
"You think I don't know that? But I don't really have a choice. And I figured something out from the last time I did this. I absolutely hate making Biyomon suffer with uncontrolled Dark Digivolution, but she'll forgive me because it's the only way to save everyone we care about. We love each other so much that we know we'll be forgiven for hurting each other. It's a horrible take on love, using it as a justification for causing pain, but sometimes, you just need to do things you aren't proud of. Now, stand back!"
Sora's Crest and Digivice flared active once again, and the ice-encased Karatenmon began glowing a dark purple before rapidly expanding, easily shattering her ice restraints. When the glow faded, the DigiDestined couldn't help but gasp in awe at her newest form. While Garudamon had been one of the largest partner Digimon the DigiDestined had access to, capable of carrying the entire team on her claws, this new form was larger than some buildings. Her massive body was covered with dark blue feathers, except for lighter blue feathers on her head, neck, and wings. Her wings and tail were ringed with purple feathers to match her beak and face markings. While the DigiDestined all cheered at Sora's success, Puppetmon's face fell.
"You want me to control THAT? How exactly am I supposed to get my strings in any sort of position to work? And even if that wasn't an issue, that new form will be a lot of trouble if Biyomon doesn't have it under control. She Digivolved into Ornismon. It's an Ancient Bird Digimon that went extinct long ago, and for good reason. Ornismon were known as the Rulers of the Skies, and they were so ferocious they would attack anything they saw. They've been depicted in legends as something approaching a god of destruction. Just by flapping their wings they could unleash Tempests that leveled forests, and their Cosmic Ray attacks fired a laser beam capable of carving out a mountainside. Now, I know legends tend to be exaggerated, but Biyomon still has a lot of destructive power at her disposal and might not know how to use it. I'll do my best to stop her from hurting you if she doesn't have control, but you'll have to get as far from here as possible as soon as you can."
Before anybody had a chance to respond, Ornismon let out a feral screech and started flapping her wings, causing massive gusts of wind as she started to take to the sky. Seeing as she was running out of time, Puppetmon sent out her strings, just barely managing to catch one of the large bird's claws. She slowly began the long trip to the top of Ornismon's head, hoping that she would at least be able to influence the direction of Ornismon's attacks, since fully controlling something that large was well outside of her current ability. She managed to make it onto Ornismon's back, but by that time, Ornismon had already started to launch an attack. Rapidly flapping her wings, Ornismon created a massive gust of wind that destroyed much of the local vegetation, but didn't seem to be aimed at anything in particular, as the DigiDestined and the Digimon were all outside of the path of the attack.
"So," Mimi said, "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Biyomon isn't fully in control of her Mega form yet. How are you holding up, Sora?" Looking to her friend, Mimi was surprised to find her face constantly fluctuating between a horrified look and a sinister grin. Hearing her name, Sora seemed to gather herself a little bit and managed to answer.
"Honestly, Mimi, I think I'm going to be sick. I keep switching between glee that I managed to manipulate my friends and family into doing exactly what I want and soul-crushing guilt that I enjoy that. I feel like I'm the evil stepmother from all of those fairytales."
"Well, at least you aren't feeling the need to kill everything anymore. Now, how about we grab LadyDevimon and NeoDevimon and see if we can get out of here before Ornismon sees us and decides we look like something it wants to attack?"
"Sounds like a great plan," TK said, "except for the fact that Ornismon already is coming right at us!" Sure enough, the large bird was flying directly at them, becoming large enough to blot out the sun. In the eclipse-like conditions, the DigiDestined could clearly see a glowing yellow orb forming within Ornismon's beak, and they knew they would not be able to escape the incoming attack. However, just before Ornismon released her Cosmic Ray attack, her head suddenly jerked slightly to the left and the bright laser blast missed the DigiDestined by thirty feet, yet the force of the impact was still great enough to knock the DigiDestined off of their feet. Mimi, Sora, and Kari all landed roughly on the now-jagged ground, yet TK experienced a somewhat softer landing: while Mimi and Sora had been standing on their own, he had still been holding Kari's hand ever since she had dragged him off to join the battle, and thus when they were sent flying, he had somehow managed to land on top of her. While he embarrassedly tried helping her up, Mimi began yelling at her partner. "Puppetmon, next time could you not cut that so close? If you had waited another second, we would have been part of that crater over there!"
"Well, I'm sorry, but it wasn't exactly easy to switch her course by even that much," Puppetmon groaned as she struggled to prevent the rampaging Ornismon from launching a much closer follow-up attack. "I'm a wooden puppet who's all of three feet tall. She's a giant legendary bird monster. It was easier when she was focusing on BlackWarGreymon and BlackMetalGarurumon, but after they got beaten around for a bit that weird robed guy suddenly sucked them into his book and disappeared. That just left you as tAHHHHHHH!"
Puppetmon's sentence turned into a horrifying scream as a multitude of explosions suddenly covered Ornismon, leaving both Digimon encased in ice after the efforts of a weary but angry BlackMetalGarurumon. As the large bird suddenly plummeted from the sky, BlackWarGreymon began charging his Terra Destroyer attack, launching it so it hit the helpless Ornismon just as she hit the ground, and the combined impacts resulted in a shockwave that once again knocked the DigiDestined from their feet. By the time they once again recovered, there was no sign of Ornismon or Puppetmon, LadyDevimon and NeoDevimon had both been knocked over yet still remained trapped in the ice, and an exhausted BlackWarGreymon and BlackMetalGarurumon stood in front of a passive Tai and Matt, with the robed Digimon floating overhead.
While Mimi and Sora were devastated at the disappearances of their partners, it served as the final straw for TK. On top of having his brother kidnapped by Lilithmon, he had just witnessed the apparent death of two of his friends at the hands of Matt and Tai's partners. Just like what had happened in the Dark Whirlpool when Ken had created Kimeramon, he suddenly found himself consumed by an intense rage and jumped to his feet, half dragging Kari with him. As his Crest began glowing once again, he sunk further and further into a rage as he tried to get NeoDevimon to Digivolve so he could free himself from the ice and punish the robed Digimon for all the problems he had faced in the past week. Kari found herself subconsciously going along with his plan, also activating her Crest, but was only vaguely aware of any of this happening, as her mind kept playing over the facts that TK had held her hand for the entirety of this battle and the two times he had fallen on top of her. Suddenly, both of their Digivices activated, and a massive explosion of dark energy erupted out of the glaciers that had trapped NeoDevimon and LadyDevimon.
Sora and Mimi could only gasp in shock at this latest development. They had both witnessed their partners Dark Digivolve to Mega in this fight, but that had only involved the usual purple glow. This time, a Dark Digivolution triggered an explosion strong enough to knock BlackWarGreymon and BlackMetalGarurumon flying backwards, reverting to their rookie forms right before colliding with their partners. Then, two pillars of black fire replaced the icebergs, and a circular symbol with strange markings appeared in each pillar, with one symbol glowing orange and the other glowing green. Looking to TK and Kari to see what they thought of this, Sora and Mimi could see both of their Crests suddenly changing. Kari's Crest was being covered with the same green symbol that had appeared where LadyDevimon had been, while TK's was being covered with the orange one, barely showing any hints of yellow or pink in the glow. TK and Kari themselves didn't seem to notice the change at all, or notice much of anything for that matter, as they appeared to be consumed by the darkness emitting from their Crests and partners.
Looking back to the two Digivolving Digimon in complete apprehension over what dark Digimon could possibly cause this reaction, Mimi and Sora managed to see the robed Digimon's book suddenly appear in front of the two glowing symbols. The book opened and the robed Digimon came out and threw one of its two stones at each of the pillars. When the stones connected, the pillars of flame suddenly disappeared, and Mimi and Sora briefly glimpsed two tiny Digimon falling from what had been the center of the pillars. TK and Kari collapsed as their Crests returned to their normal inactive states, and Mimi and Sora suddenly found themselves as the only conscious members of the team against an opponent who had just taken out two exceptionally strong Digimon, at least judging by the effects of their Digivolution, in one attack. Seeing no hope for escape without any Digimon, Mimi and Sora braced themselves for the end, when a blue and purple spiraling blast of energy suddenly struck the robed Digimon, sending him flying off of his book. When the afterglow cleared, Mimi and Sora saw Imperialdramon in his Fighter Mode. Seeing the robed Digimon's book flying back to its owner and remembering what Puppetmon had said about its ability to make Digimon disappear, Mimi quickly shouted out for Imperialdramon to destroy the book. Not quite understanding why he should do it but clearly hearing her desperation, Imperialdramon called out his Splendor Blade attack, and shredded the book with a light sword that had materialized on his left arm. Seeing the loss of his book, the robed Digimon flew over to where Tai and Matt were standing with their unconscious partners, and had his two floating stones surround his group before having them crash together in a blinding flash of light. When the light cleared, there was no sign of the enemy, and the darkness that usually signified the effects of Black Requiem disappeared.
Knowing that the disappearance of the darkness most likely signified the end of the fight, Imperialdramon satisfied himself with a quick scan of the area to assure the enemy had indeed disappeared. However, he noticed four small figures lying on the ground, and flew down to pick them up. Carrying them over to Mimi and Sora, he gently set them on the ground before Mode Changing to his Dragon Mode, letting Ken and Davis out, and then splitting back into his two rookie forms. Davis started complaining about how jarring it was for Imperialdramon to Mode Change with them inside, but a quick look at the group they had just arrived at shut him up. TK and Kari were both unconscious, and Sora and Mimi were crying over two unconscious Digimon Davis recognized from his time in Primary Village as a Nyokimon and a Yuramon. Meanwhile, Ken was tending to an unconscious Poyomon and Nyaromon, and Davis could immediately see he had missed the majority of a harrowing battle. After all, of the eight members that had started the battle, six were unconscious, and the Digimon had all been knocked back into their Baby forms except for Gatomon, who was in her In-Training stage. Deciding that swapping stories about the fight and the successful recovery of Ken's Crest would have to wait until everyone recovered, Davis and Ken had Wormmon and Veemon return to Imperialdramon so they could carry everyone back to a gate and get them home before any other evil Digimon decided to attack the weakened DigiDestined.
Back in the Dark Ocean, Lilithmon couldn't suppress her boredom. Sure, opening a rift into the Dark Area large enough to allow a Demon Lord to traverse realms sounded exciting enough, but Belphemon was taking his sweet time crossing the rift. This meant she had been standing in a circle for what felt like hours connecting her energy with the other four demon Lords in a pentagram with the Digimentals of Hope and Light in the center. As Lilithmon was completely bored and had no way to move without breaking formation and having four angry Demon Lords attack her, she found herself passing the time by critiquing every single thing that was wrong with this image. First of all, the Digimentals had no need of being included in the picture. Sure, the powers of Hope and Light helped open the dimensional rift, but they were really only required to open the Gate of the Seven Deadly Sins, not the current portal they were opening. After all, Daemon had managed to escape from the Dark Area on his own more than five years ago, and proceeded to open a pathway for her and later Barbamon long before they had acquired the Digimentals. Secondly, Belphemon shouldn't have required the entire group to be gathered together in order to cross the boundary. Sure, having a greater concentration of darkness on one side of the portal made it much easier to cross over, but Belphemon's problem wasn't that he couldn't cross on his own; it was just that he didn't want to put any energy into doing it. Why Lucemon wasn't blasting the lazy mutt she would never understand, but his laziness was forcing the other Demon Lords to pull him from the Dark Area. The third problem was the pentagram itself. After all, the Demon Lords could have accomplished the exact same purpose sitting in a circle, but they just had to go with some symbolic significance. Of course, they seemed to be ignoring the fact that a the only difference between a symbolically evil pentagram and a symbolically good pentagram was orientation, and since the star was both point up and point down depending on how you looked at it, it was impossible to tell which shape they were actually making. This entire ritual was nothing more than an overdramatic ploy.
Of course, there was a reason that Lilithmon, and the rest of the Demon Lords who saw these same problems, put up with these flaws: Lucemon had ordered them. And loathe as they all were to admit it, their leader was by far the strongest of the seven, and would have no problem destroying anybody who questioned his sense of style. He was fully capable of getting out of the Dark Area on his own now that so many Demon Lords were on the other side, but insisted on doing things his way. Luckily, the current plan hadn't formed until after Lilithmon had crossed over, so Daemon hadn't been forced to come up with something resembling a one-pointed star that satisfied Lucemon's interpretations. Sadly, Lucemon had ordered Daemon and Lilithmon to start over when their formation didn't look 'starry' enough on their first attempt to allow Barbamon to cross over, and had continued to nitpick the three and four pointed stars that allowed subsequent crossings. Of course, nobody bothered pointing out how stupid this dramatic entrance without an audience was, as they all knew too well what would happen if Lucemon got angry with them. Of all the Demon Lords, he was the only one who could handle possessing more than one of the Seven Code Keys on his own, and his history of betraying allies combined with their expendability to the overall plan stopped anyone from raising a fuss. This was a being who had the entire world destroyed the last time he freed himself and then celebrated by blowing up the moons, so if he asked for something, you tended to agree. Hence why nobody did anything other than grumble when he demanded that he should be brought into a center of a hexagram composed of all the Demon Lords. Lilithmon thought he was really pushing his boundaries when he demanded to wait until Belphemon awoke from his thousand year slumber, which admittedly was happening soon, to cross over himself and then wait an additional seven hours before starting to open the Gate, since that involved two delays to the Master's plan, but she didn't really want to be the messenger to tell her boss that his boss wasn't going to be happy with him.
Lilithmon was snapped out of her musings by the sudden appearance of what Lilithmon secretly considered a giant stuffed animal, but was actually Belphemon in his Sleep Mode. He was just lucky he only assumed this form when he was asleep and changed into a much more respectable form whenever he awoke, since he was never aware of the constant ridicule he faced as the cutest of the Demon Lords. Of course, it may have helped that nobody said the word cute anywhere near him, since his snores were so loud that even the Demon Lords tended to shy away from him. Now that the sixth Demon Lord was present, Lilithmon prepared to leave the circle and go off wandering trying to find something to entertain herself, when she felt a sudden shock that forced her to collapse onto the ground. After a few seconds, the feeling completely passed, allowing her to pick herself up to the laughter of three other Demon Lords, with the only two abstaining being the still slumbering Belphemon and Daemon, who also seemed to be picking himself off the ground. It took Lilithmon a second to recognize the feeling, as it was something she hadn't felt since she had first become one of the Seven Demon Lords: a massive shock from her Code Key. While the activity of the Key fluctuated depending on the amount of Lust currently surrounding her, Lilithmon had not felt a shock this strong since she had acclimated to its presence all those years ago. Unsure of what this could mean, Lilithmon opened a portal and left the gathering, hoping to come to some form of understanding on her own.
Unfortunately, solitude was not what Lilithmon would find. She arrived in a clearing in the forest that grew next to the Dark Ocean, but before she could do more than catch her breath, a blinding light appeared before her eyes. Before the light even cleared, Lilithmon was greeted by an ancient-sounding voice.
"Ah, I was wondering if you would feel that disturbance. It is always good to observe a phenomenon that has never been seen before." The light faded to reveal an unconscious Tai, Matt, Agumon, and Gabumon, while the robed figure addressing Lilithmon looked very out of place without his usual book. Jumping on this right away, Lilithmon couldn't help herself from venting a bit of her frustration at the events of the day. "Oh, so the great Wisemon finally feels the need to talk to others? And whatever happened to your precious book? Can't help but notice you aren't using it to pop up wherever you want anymore."
Wisemon took a second to respond, but when he did it was in his usual dispassionate tone. "Yes, the loss of my book was indeed a setback, but sacrificing it did allow me to study some new situations. First, the book is quite vulnerable to the sword of an Imperialdramon. Second, destroying the book causes me to lose any attacks that I had absorbed. Third, humans and Digimon travelling directly through the Space-time stones without my book lose consciousness, which in this case is a good thing as it prevented these four from attacking me. Now, if you excuse me, I really must find another book. With the latest actions of Hope and Light, I am about to see some truly interesting things that I must copy down. Farewell."
Before Lilithmon could even ask what he meant about the disturbance he had mentioned earlier and the latest actions of Hope and Light, Wisemon had used his Space-time stones to disappear once again. Angry that Wisemon had dumped hints of answers on her before disappearing and leaving her with Tai and Matt once again, Lilithmon decided to put her Nazar Nail through a workout, repeatedly slashing through the trees surrounding the clearing and causing them to corrode. After venting out a tiny portion of her frustration, she realized Tai and Matt were currently free, and quickly cast her Darkness Love on them once again before they regained consciousness. After deciding there really was no other way to find out what had happened, Lilithmon contented herself with waiting until they regained consciousness and questioning them herself. After all, even if they were under Wisemon's control, they still would have seen everything, and now that they had to obey her again, it would be a simple matter of asking them what happened and she would know the truth.
Author's Note: Well, looks like the DigiDestined managed to get out of this one by the skin of their teeth. We also finally get the identity of Lilithmon's replacement in Wisemon. He was probably the most difficult character to create, as I wanted him to be very scientific in his approach: viewing all the fight as an experiment and being detached, yet still interested in new developments. Hence why he immediately left when TK and Kari started Digivolving- what he saw was so interesting that he needed to abandon the fight so that he would be able to observe what happens next, both with them and Lilithmon. So, even though we didn't get to see their Mega forms, everybody now can go all the way to Mega with Dark Digivolution. The question is, will that be enough? Guess you'll just have to read to find out… or you could try asking me in a review or message. Not that I'll give major spoilers, but you can't know if I'll answer your question unless you try!