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With a flash, Alphamon’s data closes around Meicrackmon. His armour glitches, deforming and spiking, as the feathers of his wings turn from gold to black, and the gem on his forehead turns a deep violet.
He floats down out of the Gate, landing on the ground with feather-soft gracefulness, as violet cracks start spreading across his armour.
Meicrackmon is fusing with him from the inside, bit by bit, Yamato realises, and when she subsumes his data entirely, she’ll emerge as -- whatever form Gennai wants her to take.
Taichi taps his earpiece. “Monzaemon, get all the cured Digimon back through the Gate.”
Monzaemon swings an arm, and heart shaped bubbles encase the Valvemon, the Troopmon, the myriad forces that Gennai brought through, guiding them back towards the Gate. It remains open for barely long enough for them to get through, before the sky heaves shut, the edges of the Gate slamming together with a flash of lightning.
Alphamon pays them no mind, summoning to his hand a circle of green light that resolves into a black iron shield, raising his golden sword with the other. Gennai’s failed army seems to interest him less than the Chosen.
“What’s the plan?” Taichi asks Yamato.
“Counting Daisuke and Magnamon, we have eight Ultimates. Counting Monzaemon, Andromon, Goemon, and CaptainHookmon, we have five Perfects. Then three Adults,” Yamato says. “We have the numerical advantage, if nothing else. Maybe that’ll be enough.”
“So?”
“So we break his shield, pierce through his armour, and tear Meicrackmon out of him before they finish fusing,” Yamato says firmly. “We’ll set things up for you, and you and WarGreymon score the goal.”
Alphamon turns, taking them in as they gather around him in a circle. The eight Chosen and their partners, Daisuke’s team and theirs, and four Digimon allies on top of that. Yamato can’t read his expressions very well, but he doesn’t think Alphamon is that afraid.
“Form up, everyone,” Yamato calls. “We finish this, and the battle’s over.”
---
“Now, where might you be going?”
It’s Taichi Yagami’s voice, but not his inflections, as Gennai materialises in front of Meiko wearing his shape, head cocked and a wry smile twisting at his lips.
Meiko slows to a walk, but doesn’t stop moving. “I’m going to Mei-chan. You can’t stop me.”
“Meicoomon isn’t waiting for you. She doesn’t exist, there’s no Digimon with that name, and there never will be,” Gennai replies. “She’s a lie the two of you made up to cover up what she really is.”
“I don’t believe that.” Meiko had hoped her voice would come out stronger than that, but, she reflects sourly, she sounds like nothing other than a petulant, upset child. Maybe that’s all she is. “Meicoomon, Apocalymon, it doesn’t matter what she’s called, the years we spent together weren’t a lie. And you’re in my way.”
Gennai chuckles, his shape changing to Mimi’s. “Oh, you’ve picked up some of the Eight’s imperious -- …”
“Why did you send her to Earth?” Meiko asks.
Gennai blinks at her, momentarily stymied. “... What?”
“You sent her to -- I know it wasn’t me you hoped would find her, but you sent her to Shimane with a digivice, seven years ago, knowing that if someone partnered with her they could suppress the Infection, right?” Meiko says. “If you wanted to use her as a weapon, why do that?”
Gennai hesitates. “I -- thought she could live a normal life. Partnered with a human, the Infection suppressed, she could do all the things she wanted, live the life Apocalymon craved, and maybe, when that partnership came to an end, Apocalymon would be able to rest at last.”
“When did you change your mind?” Meiko asks.
“I …” Gennai frowns. “I realised there was never going to be any end to it. Apocalymon had survived, and there was Diablomon, Wendigomon, BelialVamdemon, Demon, Diablomon again, just endless war and conflicts, and I’d been so tired for so long …”
“When?” Meiko insists. “When did you decide to stop trying to save the world and start trying to end it?”
“When I found out that Apocalymon had survived -- …”
“That’s not true. You wouldn’t have sent her to Shimane if that was true.”
“Then when Diablomon, totally unconnected to Apocalymon or the prophecy, just a rogue virus infecting a Digimon, nearly destroyed -- …”
“You were still helping them afterwards. If you’d put your plan into action then, you would’ve won easily, right?”
“Then after BelialVamdemon, and -- …”
“That was four years ago,” Meiko says firmly. “But you kept helping them afterwards.”
“I -- …”
Meiko takes another step closer, passing Gennai on the road. He doesn’t move to stop her. She turns her head towards him, then, softly: “You’re like Meicoomon. There’s Apocalymon inside her, but there’s also her, and I know they’re fighting for control,” she says. “I think the reason you can’t remember making the choice to do all this is that you never made that choice. There’s something else inside you. I don’t think you’ve really been in control for a while.”
“What do you know?” Gennai snarls. “You don’t know me, you’re just a girl with the bad luck to get -- …”
“It’s because I don’t know you that I can see it.”
Gennai breathes out through his teeth, arms still at his side, rooted to the spot. “You can’t save Meicoomon, you know. This story ends in tragedy.”
Meiko doesn’t reply, just breaks into a sprint again, leaving him behind as she runs towards the battle.
---
Attack after attack bounces off Alphamon’s shield, as he hunches behind it, using his other hand and its golden sword to send blasts of energy their way.
Worse, Yamato can see Meicrackmon’s power spreading through him. The purple cracks on his armour have grown wider and more vivid, his golden eyes have started to burn with a red-purple light that hurts to look at, and his wings are growing, cracking and shifting as they spread outwards.
“We’re running out of time,” Koushiro says over comms. “We have maybe minutes before the fusion is complete.”
“I’m aware,” Yamato replies, as MetalGarurumon dances around two waves of bright green energy.
Alphamon raises his sword aloft, a bolt of green arcing up towards the clouds, then raining down on them in a barrage of energy beams. Yamato sees Vikemon and HeraklesKabuterimon hunch over several of the others, shielding them, as Rosemon and WarGreymon are knocked from the sky. MetalGarurumon careens backwards, boosters on full, weaving around each beam.
As the beams fade, Alphamon steps forward, only for Monzaemon to step into his path, eyes opening wide to fire two beams of heat that crashed against his shield, sending him skidding backwards. With a wrench of his shield, Alphamon sent the beams careening off towards the ocean. A quick swing of his sword knocks Monzaemon onto his back, slumped against a nearby building.
With one thunderous step, Alphamon closes the distance, sword raised over Monzaemon’s head, ready to come crashing down.
Yamato sees something moving on the ground. A girl, school uniform, black hair, cracked glasses. Meiko, he realises, a second too late.
She darts between Alphamon and Monzaemon, arms spread. The sword comes swinging down.
“Mei-chan!”
The sword stops.
Alphamon’s entire body lights up with static, his shape blurring and distorting, as Meicrackmon screams from inside him. Parts of his armour start to melt, other parts seem to turn brittle and crack, others still change colour from black to orange to white and back to black. His eyes flicker from reddish-violet to gold and back again.
Koushiro’s voice crackles over the comms. “The fusion’s turned unstable. I’m seeing cascading disruptions to Alphamon’s data.”
“Then this is our chance,” Yamato says. “Taichi, remember what we said? We’ll set it up, you kick it into the goal.”
“Roger that.”
“One last push, everyone.”
A dozen noises of agreement echo over the comms. Each Digimon around the field hauls themselves to their feet, swarming around Alphamon.
“Jyou,” Yamato barks. “You’re with me.”
MetalGarurumon wheels about, drawing up alongside Vikemon as the bigger Digimon charges for Alphamon.
“Cocytus Breath.”
“Arctic Blizzard.”
Two blasts of cold land against Alphamon’s shield, encasing it in ice, the frost spreading down his arms.
“Monzaemon!” Yamato calls.
Monzaemon rises to his feet, letting loose with two searing eye beams again, landing against the ice-covered shield. There’s a split second of sizzling before the ice evaporates in one blast, the steam explosion rocking Alphamon. Vikemon is on him in a second, flail crashing down against his shield, sending him skidding backwards.
“Daisuke, Miyako, Iori, CaptainHookmon!” Yamato barks. Four Digimon rush past him and MetalGarurumon, closing in on Alphamon.
“Plasma Shoot!”
“Red Sun.”
“Gold Rush!”
“Rage Giga Anchor!”
A barrage of missiles and energy bolts rain down on the shield, leaving it burning red hot, just before CaptainHookmon’s anchor slams into it, forcing Alphamon back another step.
Yamato flies MetalGarurumon higher, to get a better look at the battlefield. “Takeru, Ken, Andromon, Goemon, you’re up.”
Seraphimon and Stingmon come flying on from the left, energy blades sliding out from their wrists, as Andromon and Goemon approach from the right, swords in hand.
“Excalibur.”
“Spiking Strike.”
“Spiral Sword.”
“Iron-Splitting Blade, Zantetsuken!”
Four slashes form an eight-pointed star across the shield, burning white, the spokes converging on a spitting, sizzling central point.
“Hikari-chan, Sora, Koushiro, Mimi,” Yamato calls.
Angewomon sweeps in front of the shield, drawing back an arrow of light, as Hououmon, HeraklesKabuterimon, and Rosemon array themselves behind her.
“Holy Arrow.”
“Starlight Explosion.”
“Giga Horn Buster.”
“Forbidden Temptation.”
The attacks curve around Angewomon’s arrow, until it’s a spiral of colour, gold and violet and red, spinning around a core of pure white. It drives into Alphamon’s shield, at the central point of those slash marks, where the metal is hottest and weakest.
Crack.
Yamato sees the spiderweb of cracks spread out over the metal.
“Taichi!”
“On it.”
“Brave Tornado.” WarGreymon lifts his claws, latching them together as he spins into a tornado of fire, swinging about and flying towards Alphamon’s shield. Yamato sees it hit the crack, metal shards flying as it drills down into it, before the entire shield shatters.
WarGreymon keeps going, landing against Alphamon’s chest and boring through, and the momentary resistance Alphamon’s armour provides gives way fast, as WarGreymon bursts through and emerges from the other side, Meicrackmon gripped in one claw.
Alphamon flickers for a moment, then glows, shrinking down to some kind of purple fox, as WarGreymon lands, a struggling Meicrackmon still held tight in his claw.
The only way to end this is for Meicoomon to die, Yamato’s mind reminds him. She’s still Infected.
It’s as if she can hear his thoughts, because as Meiko runs over, Meicrackmon gives a harsh scream, bursting free of WarGreymon’s claw and flying upwards, a distortion flickering open behind her.
She steals one last glance back at Meiko, then dives through it, the distortion closing just as WarGreymon swipes at it.
It takes a moment for it all to settle. Meicrackmon is gone, but the Infection’s cured, the Dark Chosen are defeated, and Odaiba is safe for now. For the first time in a while, it feels like they’ve had a real victory.
As MetalGarurumon shrinks back down to Gabumon, Yamato finally feels his injuries catch up with him, giving a short groan of pain as he sits down, back against a building, breathing hard. There’s still work to do: They need to get all the Digimon who came to help them back to the Digital World, inform Nishijima of everything, get back to the safehouse and start dealing with all the problems that crop up in the aftermath of the battle, start trying to track Gennai and Meicrackmon, start -- …
He sucks in a sharp breath as one rib blossoms with pain, reminding him of what he’s been managing to ignore for the past hour.
“You’ve looked better, old friend.”
Gennai. But actually Gennai this time, not just his inflections coming out of someone else’s mouth, but his voice, gentle and faintly concerned. Yamato cracks open one eye, seeing the hem of Gennai’s robe.
“I’ve had worse.”
“Quite.” He can’t see Gennai’s face, but the man is probably cracking a smile.
“Are you …” Are you lucid? Are you the Gennai we know?
“Clearer but not clear. More myself, but still partly someone else,” Gennai says. “Just as you’re never fully the boy, and never completely the Crest. It won’t last. Already the other mind inside me is tangling itself up with mine again, so that one can’t be distinguished from the other.”
“Like a fusion.”
“Like an infection,” Gennai says.
Realisation hits Yamato like a brick to the stomach, but before he can ask anything else, Gennai is gone, and all that’s left is a cold afternoon on Odaiba, and the clean-up after a long battle.
He floats down out of the Gate, landing on the ground with feather-soft gracefulness, as violet cracks start spreading across his armour.
Meicrackmon is fusing with him from the inside, bit by bit, Yamato realises, and when she subsumes his data entirely, she’ll emerge as -- whatever form Gennai wants her to take.
Taichi taps his earpiece. “Monzaemon, get all the cured Digimon back through the Gate.”
Monzaemon swings an arm, and heart shaped bubbles encase the Valvemon, the Troopmon, the myriad forces that Gennai brought through, guiding them back towards the Gate. It remains open for barely long enough for them to get through, before the sky heaves shut, the edges of the Gate slamming together with a flash of lightning.
Alphamon pays them no mind, summoning to his hand a circle of green light that resolves into a black iron shield, raising his golden sword with the other. Gennai’s failed army seems to interest him less than the Chosen.
“What’s the plan?” Taichi asks Yamato.
“Counting Daisuke and Magnamon, we have eight Ultimates. Counting Monzaemon, Andromon, Goemon, and CaptainHookmon, we have five Perfects. Then three Adults,” Yamato says. “We have the numerical advantage, if nothing else. Maybe that’ll be enough.”
“So?”
“So we break his shield, pierce through his armour, and tear Meicrackmon out of him before they finish fusing,” Yamato says firmly. “We’ll set things up for you, and you and WarGreymon score the goal.”
Alphamon turns, taking them in as they gather around him in a circle. The eight Chosen and their partners, Daisuke’s team and theirs, and four Digimon allies on top of that. Yamato can’t read his expressions very well, but he doesn’t think Alphamon is that afraid.
“Form up, everyone,” Yamato calls. “We finish this, and the battle’s over.”
“Now, where might you be going?”
It’s Taichi Yagami’s voice, but not his inflections, as Gennai materialises in front of Meiko wearing his shape, head cocked and a wry smile twisting at his lips.
Meiko slows to a walk, but doesn’t stop moving. “I’m going to Mei-chan. You can’t stop me.”
“Meicoomon isn’t waiting for you. She doesn’t exist, there’s no Digimon with that name, and there never will be,” Gennai replies. “She’s a lie the two of you made up to cover up what she really is.”
“I don’t believe that.” Meiko had hoped her voice would come out stronger than that, but, she reflects sourly, she sounds like nothing other than a petulant, upset child. Maybe that’s all she is. “Meicoomon, Apocalymon, it doesn’t matter what she’s called, the years we spent together weren’t a lie. And you’re in my way.”
Gennai chuckles, his shape changing to Mimi’s. “Oh, you’ve picked up some of the Eight’s imperious -- …”
“Why did you send her to Earth?” Meiko asks.
Gennai blinks at her, momentarily stymied. “... What?”
“You sent her to -- I know it wasn’t me you hoped would find her, but you sent her to Shimane with a digivice, seven years ago, knowing that if someone partnered with her they could suppress the Infection, right?” Meiko says. “If you wanted to use her as a weapon, why do that?”
Gennai hesitates. “I -- thought she could live a normal life. Partnered with a human, the Infection suppressed, she could do all the things she wanted, live the life Apocalymon craved, and maybe, when that partnership came to an end, Apocalymon would be able to rest at last.”
“When did you change your mind?” Meiko asks.
“I …” Gennai frowns. “I realised there was never going to be any end to it. Apocalymon had survived, and there was Diablomon, Wendigomon, BelialVamdemon, Demon, Diablomon again, just endless war and conflicts, and I’d been so tired for so long …”
“When?” Meiko insists. “When did you decide to stop trying to save the world and start trying to end it?”
“When I found out that Apocalymon had survived -- …”
“That’s not true. You wouldn’t have sent her to Shimane if that was true.”
“Then when Diablomon, totally unconnected to Apocalymon or the prophecy, just a rogue virus infecting a Digimon, nearly destroyed -- …”
“You were still helping them afterwards. If you’d put your plan into action then, you would’ve won easily, right?”
“Then after BelialVamdemon, and -- …”
“That was four years ago,” Meiko says firmly. “But you kept helping them afterwards.”
“I -- …”
Meiko takes another step closer, passing Gennai on the road. He doesn’t move to stop her. She turns her head towards him, then, softly: “You’re like Meicoomon. There’s Apocalymon inside her, but there’s also her, and I know they’re fighting for control,” she says. “I think the reason you can’t remember making the choice to do all this is that you never made that choice. There’s something else inside you. I don’t think you’ve really been in control for a while.”
“What do you know?” Gennai snarls. “You don’t know me, you’re just a girl with the bad luck to get -- …”
“It’s because I don’t know you that I can see it.”
Gennai breathes out through his teeth, arms still at his side, rooted to the spot. “You can’t save Meicoomon, you know. This story ends in tragedy.”
Meiko doesn’t reply, just breaks into a sprint again, leaving him behind as she runs towards the battle.
Attack after attack bounces off Alphamon’s shield, as he hunches behind it, using his other hand and its golden sword to send blasts of energy their way.
Worse, Yamato can see Meicrackmon’s power spreading through him. The purple cracks on his armour have grown wider and more vivid, his golden eyes have started to burn with a red-purple light that hurts to look at, and his wings are growing, cracking and shifting as they spread outwards.
“We’re running out of time,” Koushiro says over comms. “We have maybe minutes before the fusion is complete.”
“I’m aware,” Yamato replies, as MetalGarurumon dances around two waves of bright green energy.
Alphamon raises his sword aloft, a bolt of green arcing up towards the clouds, then raining down on them in a barrage of energy beams. Yamato sees Vikemon and HeraklesKabuterimon hunch over several of the others, shielding them, as Rosemon and WarGreymon are knocked from the sky. MetalGarurumon careens backwards, boosters on full, weaving around each beam.
As the beams fade, Alphamon steps forward, only for Monzaemon to step into his path, eyes opening wide to fire two beams of heat that crashed against his shield, sending him skidding backwards. With a wrench of his shield, Alphamon sent the beams careening off towards the ocean. A quick swing of his sword knocks Monzaemon onto his back, slumped against a nearby building.
With one thunderous step, Alphamon closes the distance, sword raised over Monzaemon’s head, ready to come crashing down.
Yamato sees something moving on the ground. A girl, school uniform, black hair, cracked glasses. Meiko, he realises, a second too late.
She darts between Alphamon and Monzaemon, arms spread. The sword comes swinging down.
“Mei-chan!”
The sword stops.
Alphamon’s entire body lights up with static, his shape blurring and distorting, as Meicrackmon screams from inside him. Parts of his armour start to melt, other parts seem to turn brittle and crack, others still change colour from black to orange to white and back to black. His eyes flicker from reddish-violet to gold and back again.
Koushiro’s voice crackles over the comms. “The fusion’s turned unstable. I’m seeing cascading disruptions to Alphamon’s data.”
“Then this is our chance,” Yamato says. “Taichi, remember what we said? We’ll set it up, you kick it into the goal.”
“Roger that.”
“One last push, everyone.”
A dozen noises of agreement echo over the comms. Each Digimon around the field hauls themselves to their feet, swarming around Alphamon.
“Jyou,” Yamato barks. “You’re with me.”
MetalGarurumon wheels about, drawing up alongside Vikemon as the bigger Digimon charges for Alphamon.
“Cocytus Breath.”
“Arctic Blizzard.”
Two blasts of cold land against Alphamon’s shield, encasing it in ice, the frost spreading down his arms.
“Monzaemon!” Yamato calls.
Monzaemon rises to his feet, letting loose with two searing eye beams again, landing against the ice-covered shield. There’s a split second of sizzling before the ice evaporates in one blast, the steam explosion rocking Alphamon. Vikemon is on him in a second, flail crashing down against his shield, sending him skidding backwards.
“Daisuke, Miyako, Iori, CaptainHookmon!” Yamato barks. Four Digimon rush past him and MetalGarurumon, closing in on Alphamon.
“Plasma Shoot!”
“Red Sun.”
“Gold Rush!”
“Rage Giga Anchor!”
A barrage of missiles and energy bolts rain down on the shield, leaving it burning red hot, just before CaptainHookmon’s anchor slams into it, forcing Alphamon back another step.
Yamato flies MetalGarurumon higher, to get a better look at the battlefield. “Takeru, Ken, Andromon, Goemon, you’re up.”
Seraphimon and Stingmon come flying on from the left, energy blades sliding out from their wrists, as Andromon and Goemon approach from the right, swords in hand.
“Excalibur.”
“Spiking Strike.”
“Spiral Sword.”
“Iron-Splitting Blade, Zantetsuken!”
Four slashes form an eight-pointed star across the shield, burning white, the spokes converging on a spitting, sizzling central point.
“Hikari-chan, Sora, Koushiro, Mimi,” Yamato calls.
Angewomon sweeps in front of the shield, drawing back an arrow of light, as Hououmon, HeraklesKabuterimon, and Rosemon array themselves behind her.
“Holy Arrow.”
“Starlight Explosion.”
“Giga Horn Buster.”
“Forbidden Temptation.”
The attacks curve around Angewomon’s arrow, until it’s a spiral of colour, gold and violet and red, spinning around a core of pure white. It drives into Alphamon’s shield, at the central point of those slash marks, where the metal is hottest and weakest.
Crack.
Yamato sees the spiderweb of cracks spread out over the metal.
“Taichi!”
“On it.”
“Brave Tornado.” WarGreymon lifts his claws, latching them together as he spins into a tornado of fire, swinging about and flying towards Alphamon’s shield. Yamato sees it hit the crack, metal shards flying as it drills down into it, before the entire shield shatters.
WarGreymon keeps going, landing against Alphamon’s chest and boring through, and the momentary resistance Alphamon’s armour provides gives way fast, as WarGreymon bursts through and emerges from the other side, Meicrackmon gripped in one claw.
Alphamon flickers for a moment, then glows, shrinking down to some kind of purple fox, as WarGreymon lands, a struggling Meicrackmon still held tight in his claw.
The only way to end this is for Meicoomon to die, Yamato’s mind reminds him. She’s still Infected.
It’s as if she can hear his thoughts, because as Meiko runs over, Meicrackmon gives a harsh scream, bursting free of WarGreymon’s claw and flying upwards, a distortion flickering open behind her.
She steals one last glance back at Meiko, then dives through it, the distortion closing just as WarGreymon swipes at it.
It takes a moment for it all to settle. Meicrackmon is gone, but the Infection’s cured, the Dark Chosen are defeated, and Odaiba is safe for now. For the first time in a while, it feels like they’ve had a real victory.
As MetalGarurumon shrinks back down to Gabumon, Yamato finally feels his injuries catch up with him, giving a short groan of pain as he sits down, back against a building, breathing hard. There’s still work to do: They need to get all the Digimon who came to help them back to the Digital World, inform Nishijima of everything, get back to the safehouse and start dealing with all the problems that crop up in the aftermath of the battle, start trying to track Gennai and Meicrackmon, start -- …
He sucks in a sharp breath as one rib blossoms with pain, reminding him of what he’s been managing to ignore for the past hour.
“You’ve looked better, old friend.”
Gennai. But actually Gennai this time, not just his inflections coming out of someone else’s mouth, but his voice, gentle and faintly concerned. Yamato cracks open one eye, seeing the hem of Gennai’s robe.
“I’ve had worse.”
“Quite.” He can’t see Gennai’s face, but the man is probably cracking a smile.
“Are you …” Are you lucid? Are you the Gennai we know?
“Clearer but not clear. More myself, but still partly someone else,” Gennai says. “Just as you’re never fully the boy, and never completely the Crest. It won’t last. Already the other mind inside me is tangling itself up with mine again, so that one can’t be distinguished from the other.”
“Like a fusion.”
“Like an infection,” Gennai says.
Realisation hits Yamato like a brick to the stomach, but before he can ask anything else, Gennai is gone, and all that’s left is a cold afternoon on Odaiba, and the clean-up after a long battle.
