Author's Note: This chapter pretty much explains how Rika and Renamon got to the Adventure/Adventure 02 universe, and a few other things. So grab a soda and kick back. You'll want to pay attention to this chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon.
Chapter 2: What Really Happened To Ryo Akiyama
Not long after the attack of the Guardromon, the group had gathered at Ken and Yolei's apartment, and they had convinced the young woman known as Rika and her Digimon partner Renamon to come with them. They had not been able to get very much out of the girl, except that her full name was Rika Nonaka. Other than her name she would not say much. Since they had gotten to the apartment, Rika sat alone in the middle of the couch with her arms crossed and did not say a word. The rest of the group sat gathered around her on the various other pieces of furniture.
Meanwhile in another corner of the room, Renamon was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. The rest of the Digimon had gathered around her, and like their Digidestined partners who were having trouble talking to Rika; they were having difficulties talking to Renamon. The problem that the Digimon group was having was they were simply intimidated by Renamon, especially Wormmon. Whenever one member of the group would try to speak to the fox Digimon, Renamon would look at them with her cold icy-blue eyes and cause them to back down. As a result, the entire room was filled by an awkward silence for what seemed like hours.
"So…" Yolei began in an attempt to break the silence. "We're in a T.V. show where you come from?"
"That's what I said, isn't it?" Rika replied with a cold stare. "In my world you guys are nothing but characters in an anime. You're a lot older now than you were in the show, but there's no mistaking you guys."
"Was I your favorite character?" Davis suddenly asked. Both Rika and Yolei glared at Davis, while Ken shook his head as Cody and Izzy looked at him with deadpan expressions. "Uh, never mind."
"Do you really expect us to believe that we're just characters in a cartoon?" Ken asked Rika with a tone of skepticism.
"Do you really expect me to believe that you're really who you say you are?" Rika retorted.
"If we are television characters in the world where you claim to come from Ms. Nonaka, than perhaps you could tell us the events of this series," Izzy suggested.
Rika looked at Izzy for a moment, then sighed and finally recounted everything that she remembered from the Digimon anime series that she had watched when she was younger. The Digidestined were shocked to find her recounting of the series conformed almost exactly to the events of their early adventures. Rika also told them of the merchandise that the Digimon anime of her world had produced, such as a trading card game. She even showed them the cards used for that game, which were the very cards she had used to power up Renamon during the previous battle.
"Alright, we'll assume for the moment that you're telling the truth Ms. Nonaka," Izzy began after hearing Rika's story. "How exactly did to get to our world?"
"…Renamon and I were chasing after an evil Digimon," Rika began after a short pause. "The Digimon we were after, Barbamon, had escaped through this weird portal. Renamon and I followed him through and we wound up at this weird depressing beach."
"That sounds like the Dark Ocean!" Ken interrupted.
"Wait, now that you mention it, it does…" Rika realized after suddenly remembering something from the T.V. show she had just finished telling them about. "Anyway, Renamon and I ended up wondering along that beach for what seemed like forever until we came across another portal. We went through hoping it would lead to Barbamon, and also to get out of that place. And the next thing we know, we're in T.V. land."
"Why were you chasing this Barbamon?" Davis asked.
"He captured a friend of mine. His name's Ryo."
"Wait, did you say Ryo?" Ken asked as he shot up from his chair.
"Yeah, Ryo Akiyama," Rika answered with a raised eyebrow. "Why, do you not like his name or something?"
Ken fell back into his chair with an expression of utter shock on his face. Yolei and Izzy were also very surprised to hear Ryo's name, as were Wormmon, Hawkmon, and Tentomon.
"Hey, what's with you guys?" Davis asked with an understandably confused expression.
"It, it can't be…" Ken spoke with a mixture of shock and what might be called fright. "How…how could you know Ryo?"
"Wait, are you saying that you actually know Ryo too?" Rika asked sounding just as surprised as Ken.
"Ken said that he met Ryo when he first became a Digidestined," Yolei answered in Ken's place, as he was too shocked to speak at the moment. "In fact they were once neighbors."
"I'm actually a bit surprised that you knew Ryo, Ken," Izzy interrupted.
"You know this Ryo guy too Izzy?" Davis asked sounding surprised.
Izzy nodded. "As a matter of fact I do, though not as well as Ken and Ms. Nonaka seem to. He not only saved me, but everyone else who fought the Dark Masters and Apocalymon."
"What happened exactly?" Cody asked.
"I suppose that it all began after WarGreymon defeated Machinedramon of the Dark Masters," Izzy began. "Nobody is sure how exactly it happened, but one member of the Dark Masters, Machindramon had survived and found another Digimon that was on the verge of death, a Kimeramon."
"Hold on! I thought that Kimeramon was a Digimon that Ken made when he was still the Digimon Emperor," Davis interrupted. "How could that thing have existed back then?"
"It is entirely possible that Kimeramon was not an original creation of Ken's," Izzy answered. "As I was saying, we don't know for sure how it happened, but the theory is Machinedramon's data came across a wounded Kimeramon that was also on the verge of death. How this Kimeramon became wounded, nobody can say, but somehow it and Machinedramon went through a DNA digivolution in an attempt to survive. It was probably no different from two damaged space probes both equipped with complex A.I. encountering each other and using each other's parts in a simple attempt to repair themselves, only to inadvertently become far more powerful than anyone could have imagined."
"Did you just hit us with a Star Trek reference?" Yolei asked as she crossed her arms.
Izzy suddenly blushed a bit. "I did. You have to admit the episode I referenced is a very apt one."
"Hey. I'm not judging," Yolei assured him as she raised her hands. "I'm a pretty big Star Trek fan myself. In fact just a few weeks ago I made Ken watch the first season of the original series with me."
Izzy cleared his throat. "Anyway, the resulting fusion of Machinedramon and Kimeramon resulted in Millenniummon, a creature so absurdly powerful that it could manipulate time and space."
"Wait a minute, Wormmon said that Ken's Dark Spore came from Millenniummon!" Hawkmon recalled in an attempt to join in on the conversation.
Izzy held his chin in thought. "Hmm, I suppose that could mean the Dark Spore contained information on Millenniummon's pre-evolved forms, and that Ken had subconsciously used the information to create the Kimeramon that he used as the Digimon Emperor. But once again we seem to be getting away from the story. As I was saying, Millenniummon had the power to manipulate time and space, and he had used that power to not only capture us, but also revive some of our fallen enemies. It seemed to us like there was no hope for survival that time, but somehow Agumon had escaped with Tai's Digivice and was able to get help. That help came from Ryo Akiyama.
"Ryo had been pulled into the Digital World and worked with our Digimon partners and a few of the allies we'd made during our original journey to defeat Millenniummon. With Millenniummon gone, we had all been released and time had returned to normal. After that Ryo had returned home. The whole experience was interesting to say the least, but one of the most interesting things about it was Ryo himself. If he was truly a Digidestined, he was not a normal one. He did not have a Digimon partner of his own or even his own Digivice. Instead he teamed up with other Digimon that were either wild or partners to other Digidestined. I suppose that in a way he was as odd an occurrence as Millenniummon."
"…That's exactly how he was when I met him," Ken suddenly spoke after remaining silent. "When Wormmon and I met Ryo he was able to command the Digimon during the course of our quest. That's how we fought Millenniummon."
"Wait, you mean Millenniummon came back?" Davis asked in an attempt to figure out what was going on.
"I didn't even know that Ryo had fought Milleniummon before in the past when I met him. Izzy, why are we just hearing about Ryo's original battle with Millenniummon now? Why didn't we know about any of this before?"
Izzy's expression suddenly darkened. "This is not an easy subject for me or any of the other original Digidestined to talk about. Ken, do you know anything about the D-1 Tournament?"
Ken nodded. "A little. The last time Ryo was over at my place while I was still sick from being infected with the Dark Spore, he used my computer and found some kind of quiz meant to find participants for that tournament. Once he finished it he was taken to the Digital World again. I don't really know too much other than that, except the fact I never saw Ryo again after that incident."
"I see… Then I suppose I should explain just what the tournament was," Izzy began. "The tournament was actually a rouse concocted by the Harmonious Ones to train Ryo to fight Millenniummon one last time. Millenniummon had evolved since our last encounter with him. He had become Moon=Millenniummon, a being that had evolved beyond the need of a physical form and had become a sort of spirit dwelling inside a large crystal. For whatever reason Ryo was the only one strong enough to defeat him, but he needed to be trained. So the Harmonious Ones and Gennai had concocted a false tournament with the premise that the winner would be partnered with one of the Harmonious Ones to fight his corrupted brethren.
"Tai, Matt, Sora, Joe, Mimi, and myself were all asked to participate. None of us knew at the time the tournament was a lie until Ryo had won as he was supposed to, no one except perhaps for Tai and Matt. I actually recall Tai telling me how he thought Ryo had become colder and more distant after he had learned the truth. I suppose I could hardly blame Ryo after being deceived in such a way. Anyway, after the truth behind the tournament was exposed, Ryo went to Moon=Millenniummon's castle for the final battle. Sometime after he had gotten there, the castle exploded. We searched several times, but there was no sign of Ryo. We had no choice but to assume the worst."
Ken, Davis, Yolei, Cody, and Rika were all shocked by what they had just heard. Although Ken was a bit more than shocked, he was a little angry. For years he had wondered what had happened to his old friend, and he had just found out that he had not only been presumed dead, but that six of the original Digidestined had known about it the whole time and had said nothing. Ken didn't really know who to be madder at though. Was he to be madder at Izzy and the others for hiding what they knew of Ryo's fate, or at the Harmonious Ones for using Ryo the way they did? It was a shocking revelation to say the least.
"Hold on brainiac!" Rika loudly interrupted. "Let's say I believe this weird story of yours that Ryo is from your world. Well if that's true, than how did he end up in mine?"
"Actually Ms. Nonaka, if the story of where you come from is indeed true, than it opens up a possibility we have never even considered before," Izzy answered. "Moon=Millenniummon did in fact have the power to manipulate time and space. So it is conceivable that he could cross dimensions as well. It is possible the explosion we saw was Millenniummon catapulting Ryo to another dimension, perhaps as some form of final revenge."
"…How did you first meet Ryo?" Ken asked Rika after a slight pause.
"…It was years ago at a tournament for the Digimon card game," Rika began. "I had made it to the final round, and my opponent was Ryo. He managed to wipe the floor with me and win the tournament. After that he seemed to vanish. I didn't run into Ryo again until later when some friends of mine and I went to the Digital World, that is the Digital World that exists where I come from, to take care of some things. While we were there we ran into Ryo. He said that he had gone to the Digital World to tame his partner, Cyberdramon."
"So, Ryo had a partner in your world?" Ken asked.
Rika nodded. "Yeah, I guess he got him when he got there. Of course I still don't really believe this story of yours."
"Cyberdramon was savage when we first met him," Renamon interjected, speaking for the first time. "He had an insatiable desire for combat that made him want to fight everyone and everything he came across. His desire seemed to vanish during the battle with the D-Reaper, but there was something about that savagery that actually terrified me a bit. There were times when it seemed as though Cyberdarmon was fighting something within himself."
"Wait a minute, what the heck is the D-Reaper?" Davis interrupted.
"That's a long story," Rika answered. "But Renamon is right about Cyberdramon once being a battle-crazed animal. There were few times when Ryo had told hold him back using some kind of energy whip that came out of his Digivice. Cyberdramon did seem to mellow out later on though, just like Renamon said."
Suddenly Renamon tensed up and looked in the direction of one of the windows. "Rika, I sense something right outside! Something dangerous."
Immediately Rika got up and stormed out of the apartment with Renamon following close behind. A moment later the Digidestined and their Digimon followed them. When the group got outside, they found a humanoid figure standing atop a nearby lamppost with his arms crossed. The figure had a mechanical right arm and wore a black and grey bodysuit. His face was completely covered by a metal mask, and he wore a very long and tattered red scarf around his neck. To the group he looked very much like a Japanese super hero.
"Who is this guy?" Davis asked.
"That's Justimon," Renamon replied as she narrowed her ice-blue eyes at the Digimon hero. "And there's something not right about him."
Author's Note: One of the first things that I thought about when writing this chapter was how the other Digimon would interact with Renamon. I thought that they'd find Renamon intimidating, especially after they saw her take down that Snimon like she did in the last chapter. The Star Trek episode Izzy and Yolei reference in this chapter is called The Changeling, if memory serves. In the episode in question, the crew of the Enterprise encounters a powerful and very intelligent probe called Nomad that was formed when a probe from Earth became damaged and found an equally damaged alien probe, and the two repaired each other by combing with one another. It's a really good episode, for the most part.
When I had first read about Millenniummon years ago on the Digimon Wiki, I almost immediately thought of that Star Trek episode. The description of Millenniummon had said that it was formed when a dying Machindramon and Kimeramon combined for reasons unknown. Those reasons didn't seem unknown to me. I mean Machindramon is basically a robot, and Kimeramon is a robot of sorts, only it was made from organic parts. It seemed to me like they combined for the simple purpose of repairing each other.
Anyway, one problem I had was how the Adventure 02 anime had implied that Kimeramon was an original creation of Ken's. But that didn't make sense if another Kimeramon had formed half of Millenniummon, so I came up with the idea that the Dark Spore had actually influenced Kimeramon's creation. I also made a small change to the events of the video game where Ryo and Ken fought Millenniummon. In that game, Ryo was partnered with Davis's Veemon, but that didn't make sense to me, so instead I just had it so Ryo used various Digimon that he encountered.
The action starts up again in the next chapter, so stay tuned. In the meantime, please review and let me know what you think.