Athena unleashed the most dangerous digimon that Davis, Tai, or any of the others have ever faced. Even if meant going with them, Athena was set to destroy everything no matter what. She almost succeeded, but Davis simply refused to surrender and accept that this was his end. His determination ended up finding a way to defeat Nidhoggmon and it worked. After their attacks landed Nidhoggmon suffered from a great explosion with his body breaking away into bits of data.
"It's over." Izzy said. "All those dangerous energy levels Nidhoggmon was releasing are dropping to nothing." It seemed scary, but Nidhoggmon was just another digimon that they managed to defeated. Just as all of Nidhoggmon was breaking away to nothing, all of them saw something crash against the ground. They all looked and saw it was Athena, but she was in bad shape.
"Is... Is she..." Yolei said as they were all thinking the same thing. Davis was the only one brave enough to take a look as he moved closer to her and tried to see if she was actually alive.
"Why...?" Athena mumbled. She was still alive, but it looked like she wasn't going anywhere. "Why could you not accept your inevitable fate? All of existence came from nothingness. We are bound to return there. Why do you refuse to accept that?"
"I'm not denying that all things have to come to an end at some point, but that's why we live for as long as we can." Davis said. "Nothing might last forever, but isn't that really why life is more important? Isn't that why we find it important, because it's so limited? I refused to accept it because I didn't want it to end just yet. It's why we fight to make it last for as long as it can." Athena remained silent, but Davis is right. All life might come to their own end at some point, but that's why we have to try and make things last for as long as they can. "You had some great moments yourself, didn't you?"
"Did I?" Athena questioned.
"With Veemon and the others. They saw you like a mother, and you treated them like that." Davis said. "I don't know what happened that made you all doom and gloomy, but did you forget what those times were like. You worked with Gennai to help protect the Digital World. How could you just throw that all away like it meant nothing?"
"Was it like that?" Athena said as she was beginning to remember what things were like before. She helped bring the digidestined because she still had hope for the Digital World. She raised three digimon and made armor digivolution possible to help fight against the powers of darkness. Then, one day she found herself in the world of darkness and fell into it's water. The dark power that flowed through there is what made her what she is. "I just lost my light..." That was all she said before she glowed herself and broke apart into mere stardust. She was soon nothing with the dust floating away and now she was really gone.
"Is it really over?" Yolei questioned.
"I believe so." Ken said as their digimon reverted back to their original forms.
"Veemon? Hawkmon? Are you two doing okay?" Wormmon asked out of concern.
"Yeah..." Veemon said.
"We'll be fine." Hawkmon said as they won't forget what Athena did for them. If it wasn't for her, they never would have met their friends.
"I'm just glad it finally seems to be over." Gabumon said.
"Not quite. There's still that evil Gennai." Tentomon said.
"Yeah, but the others had to have been done with him by now." Matt said. Davis was just glad it was over himself, but he did feel a little sorry for Athena.
"Davis..." Tai said as he walked on over. "That was pretty incredible. Despite how bad it seemed, you didn't give up."
"You would have done the same." Davis said.
"Maybe, but I'm not the same kid I was when my adventure started." Tai said. "That's why I'm glad I entrusted things to someone like you. That's also why...I'm so sorry about before. We did just abandon you guys." He claimed as he thinks that maybe if Davis and the others were with them, things with Meiko and Meicoomon could have gone differently.
"How about we make it up to you by getting something to eat?" Agumon said being the glutton he is with the others laughing.
"Don't worry about it. Life is too short to focus on all the bad things." Davis said as he doesn't want to spend it holding onto a grudge with Tai appreciating this.
"Gusy! Something is wrong!" Izzy said.
"Just look! The sky isn't clearing!" Kari said. All of them looked up and saw she was right. The sky was still dark and there was no sign of it clearing away.
"I don't get it. We defeated Nidhoggmon, and Athena is now gone. Why is everything still like this?" Matt questioned.
"Would you like me to tell you?" They all turned around and saw that the imposter of Gennai was there now. That very instant, he unleashed some sort of dark power and struck Matt, Ken, and their digimon with it. All four of them felt like their energy was being drained right out of them.
"Matt! Ken!" Tai called.
"What's that creep doing here?! I thought the others had him!" Yolei said.
"Obviously not!" Hawkmon said.
"Good luck trying to form Imperialdramon and Omnimon without them!" Evil Gennai said as he drained all of their strength. Just before Ken blacked out, he took a good look at him and the way he smirked. When he saw that, flash images popped in his mind with him realizing something.
'I remember!' Ken thought before he blacked out.
"What did you to them?!" Gatomon said.
"The same to all of you!" Evil Gennai said as he turned to all of them with Davis realizing what he's about to do.
"Move!" Davis called, but it was too late. Davis and Veemon moved just in time, but the others got caught by that same dark power and they all felt like their energy was being drained as well. All of them had trouble holding on and soon blacked out. Tai was doing his best to endure it, but he couldn't resist for much longer.
"I almost forgot how tough you are, Tai." Evil Gennai said. "Even without your little friends to help you, you're a tough one. Just like when we fought before."
"Who are you?" Tai questioned. "How do you..." He wondered who it is until it all came right to him. He could now see the truth. "Davis! Run!"
"What?!" Davis said.
"We're not leaving you!" Veemon called.
"Getaway while you can. You're the only one left. Run!" Tai insisted before he blacked out. It seemed like Davis didn't have a choice. He's the only one not captured. He quickly had Veemon become Raidramon and escaped while they could.
"Run all you want. There's nowhere anyone can hide now." Evil Gennai said as he has the others right where he wants him now.
...
Tai
"Tai... Tai? Can you hear me?" Tai began to hear voices and was beginning to pull himself together. When he finally woke up, he could see he was surrounded by all the others.
"What's going on?" Tai questioned as he got up and saw they were all trapped in some sort of black barrier near a different part of the water. "What is this?"
"Tai! Over here!" Tai looked and saw the digimon were trapped in a separate barrier. Tai reached out and touched the barrier, but his hand got shocked and had to pull back.
"Agumon! Is everyone okay?!" Tai said.
"So far." Agumon said.
"We tried to digivolve, but we can't." Gabumon said.
"What's going on here?" Kari said.
"It happened not that long after Yolei and Ken went to help the rest of you." Cody said.
"We all got captured by that imposter." Mimi said. "He used some weird dark power on all of us and we all blacked out. When we woke up, we were here."
"None of us expected something like this." T.K. said. "Just who is this guy? How is he capable of doing anything like this?"
"No clue." Matt said.
"I already know who he is." Tai said with all of them surprised to hear that Tai might have actually figured it out.
"Do you?" Evil Gennai showed himself and taunted them with that smirk on his face. "You think you know who I am? Then please, enlighten us."
"You have to be someone that has vast knowledge of the Digital World, as well as the powers of darkness." Tai said. "You would also have to be quite psychotic. More importantly, you have to be someone that has a grudge against us. You knew who we were. When we went to the Digital World after the reboot, it wasn't by chance we were attacked by MetalSeadramon and Machinedramon. Why don't you take off the disguise and show your real face already...Piedmon!"
"Piedmon?!" Matt said as all of them were shocked that Tai would make such an accusation. That was when the fake Gennai started clapping his hands.
"Well done. You've figured it out just as I am finally able to return to my true form!" He declared as he began to laugh with energy flowing through him and his body began to transform into a figure they were all quite familiar with. They just couldn't believe it was really him. The true face behind everything that has happened is the sinister Piedmon himself.
"It really is Piedmon!" Sora said.
"I don't believe it! I thought he was gone forever!" T.K. said.
"Well, as you can see, I'm alive and well." Piedmon said. "It's so good to see all of you again, just as your precious world is about to come to an end."
"But how is this possible?" Kari said.
"How the hell are you still alive?" Matt said.
"I'm so glad you asked. Story time!" Piedmon cheered. "Let me share with you my origin since there are some unfamiliar faces from that time. A long time ago, a group known as the Four Dark Masters conquered the Digital World and form the likes of Spiral Mountain."
"We're familiar with this story." Yolei said.
"That's right. We were told all about it, how you created Spiral Mountain, and how you had the likes of Azulongmon sealed away." Cody said.
"But there's more to the story than you know." Piedmon said. "You see, this part of the story involves two people you all know: Nishijima and Himekawa." All of them were really listening when he mentioned them. "You may not know this, but they were a part of another team of digidestined long before all of you came around. We faced each other in battle, but they were no match for us. That was until their partners digivolved into the ones who became known as the Sovereign, including Azulongmon. However, in order to defeat us, one of their own had to make the ultimate sacrifice."
"Himekawa's partner..." Tai said.
"Very good." Piedmon said. "But it was all for nothing. It merely postponed our plans. When we Dark Masters were able to return, we sealed away the power of the Sovereign so they wouldn't interfere with our plans. That's when a new team of digidestined came: the eight of you. I'm sure you all know what happened after that. You climbed your way up Spiral Mountain and defeated the Four Dark Masters along the way. You believe absolute victory was yours, but you were wrong."
"That's when we defeated you and thought you were gone forever." Joe said.
"Who's telling the story here?" Piedmon said. "Yes, you thought you defeated me when you threw me and my Vilemon into that accursed gate created by MagnaAngemon. I wasn't sure if I would actually survive, but I did. I came close to facing my own doom, but I survived against the hazards in that dimension. For digimon like me, that place truly was hell designed to completely destroy me. I fought my way through what was in there until I finally found a way out and ended up...in the world of darkness."
"The world of darkness?!" Ken said.
"Why did it have to be there of all places?" Yolei questioned.
"I soon found myself in that world, but I was greatly weakened. It took everything I had left to hold myself together." Piedmon said. "I swore to myself I would survive until I could have my revenge. I had to wait for years to recover, but that world replenish my dark heart. During my recovery, I had plenty of time to think of a new plan. Now, after all this time, my time for revenge has finally come! All my power has finally returned to me! I feel as good as new!"
"I can't believe he's been around for all this time." Izzy said.
"Well? You have us now, you psycho clown? So what is the deal with all that other stuff?" Matt said. "If your big plan was just to destroy us, what's going on with everything else."
"Well, I suppose destroying you isn't all that I wanted." Piedmon said. "I had every intention to finish what I started and I wasn't going to let anyone stop me. As part of my desire for revenge, I will destroy your own world. That is what brings us to now."
"What do you mean? What did you do, Piedmon?" Tai questioned.
"You see, my plan was to threw the Digital World and this world into complete chaos and darkness. With my power greatly weakened, I wondered how I was going to do that." Piedmon said. "Then, I learned about something quite interesting. You see, the world of darkness holds a connection to the Digital World, and from there, I soon learned about a digimon named Meicoomon, and what she had inside her."
"Meicoomon?!" Mimi said as she knew everything centered around her for a while.
"You found out she had a piece of Apocalymon's data inside her." Ken said.
"That's right." Piedmon said as he showed the piece he had. "This little black cube was what I was really after the whole time. It was just what I needed to help me return to my full power. I also had other powerful beings in the Digital World to be concerned about, such as the likes of King Drasil. That's when I realized that I could deceive the likes of King Drasil into aiding against you humans. I had King Drasil convinced that humans were really the enemy. Of course, I knew he never would trust the likes of me, so I had to take a form he would trust."
"Gennai!" T.K. said. "That's when this all start. You used the powers that came from that dark world to cause the entire mess."
"Very good. I kidnapped Gennai and took his form. It was also a great way to ensure you wouldn't know about my return, buying time until I had all my power restored." Piedmon said. "In fact, you don't really know what the infected digimon or the warps were really for. Their true purpose was to aid in the disbalance between the worlds."
"A disbalance?! You mean...this whole time you were trying to destroy the borders between our worlds?!" Izzy said.
"That would be correct." Piedmon said. "The infected digimon unleashed something like a virus that disrupted the spatial balance, and the warps were a result of that virus. In time, they grew more and more. As for Meicoomon, she played a big hand in that. This bit of data resonated with all that came from that other world, as well as negative emotions she felt since digimon with human partners can channel their emotions into energy for them to use, and that is what brought you all to fight your little friend. With King Drasil's help, I hunted Meicoomon down. Anticipating failure, I was able to retrieve this and get King Drasil shutdown. All you did was set my plans back rather than stop them. I also learned of the reboot. That truly helped as well. It helped in getting my revenge on all of you as your precious partners appeared to be gone. Although, I didn't think you would actually come back from that stronger than ever before. Himekawa played a part as well as she wanted to use the reboot to bring back her partner, only to learn her partner has no memory of her. Isn't it sad? Still, she had no idea who I really was at the time."
"And what about Athena? What did she have to do with this?" Cody asked.
"Oh... That's right. There's also the matter of Athena. I thought Gennai was the only survivor, but she was still around herself." Piedmon said. "Athena appearing in that dark world was all her doing, part of her research or something like that, but she certainly didn't expect me. All it took was a mere push into the water of that world and the darkness began to consume her."
"So Piedmon has been manipulating everything from the very beginning." T.K. said as they all despised what he did. All of them suffered through a lot and it was all part of his plan.
"Yes, all for one purpose: to have my revenge on all of you!" Piedmon said. "And now, it's time to pull back the curtain on the final act. I thought the reboot would have taken away your precious partners, but that's fine that it didn't work. Both worlds will soon fall into darkness and chaos! Just look!" He called as he pointed straight up. All of them looked up to see the clouds pulling away and they could see it. Kari being the most horrified, the Dark Ocean was right over their heads.
"It's the Dark Ocean!" Gatomon said.
"Beaches are suppose to be fun. That does not look fun." Agumon said.
"This was Piedmon's plan all along!" Ken said.
"Yes, and now there's nothing you can do to stop me. Without your digimon, you pathetic humans are powerless." Piedmon said. "Now that I have you all here, no one can stop me!" With this much darkness, it could really be the end. Piedmon's plan from the start was to weaken the borders and destroy both worlds. Everything has almost gone to his plan, and now it might come to fruition with the digiestined unable to stop him.
'It's not over. Davis is still out there. He's our last hope.' Kari thought. It looks like it really is all up to Davis now. He's the only one who can do anything now.