Fish of Oblivion

Digimon: The Convergence of the Human and Digital Worlds

As Dirk awoke from a dreamless sleep, it was the sight of an unfamiliar sky that greeted him.

His mind as clear as that sleep, it was only instinct that bid him to rise, pulling himself up into a sitting position as his eyes blinked open: fortunately, his body and muscles seemed full of life and vigor, and he was conscious and comprehending within moments.

Not that there was much to be conscious and comprehending of. As he sat up and the strange grey sky above disappeared into his peripheral vision, there was a severe dirth of anything else to fill his sight: fine white sands stretched away into a seemingly infinite distance, whilst nothing else besides him seemed to occupy the space between them and the sky. And, as he moved his vision downwards, a lack of something else came to his attention.

Normally, Dirk might have reacted to the fact that he was as naked as the day he was born; but in that moment, something about it seemed oddly natural. Besides, it wasn’t as if there was anyone else around to see him.

“I guess the shock finally wore off. Didn’t take as long as I expected, I’ll give you that.”

At least, not until the voice appeared. Dirk looked up, and then sprung up to his feet with a start as he saw that company had arrived out of thin air.

“I suppose you have questions.” Said company was an unfamiliar man: elderly, but with a few streaks of red hair amongst the ocean of gray. A pair of sunglasses made his features hard to discern: he could easily have been Asian, Caucasian, or something else entirely. Dirk, however, was more interested in why he got to keep his clothes.

“Why am I naked?” One train of thought lead to another, and Dirk figured he might as well start with the obvious one. That same train of thought lead him to cover his crotch: being naked by his lonesome was one thing, but he didn’t want some weird old man checking him out.

“You don’t take your clothes with you when you die.” And the answer came as bluntly as possible, causing Dirk’s train of thought to derail and crash. “Good grief, all the questions you could have asked, and you lead with that one. They weren’t kidding about you being a dumbass before you died.”

What was this shitty old geezer talking about? He was dead? When? How? Why?

But as his thoughts began to move again, his memories moved alongside them. It was hazy, perhaps thankfully so, but he could make out the grisly details as they rushed back into his head. After getting away from that rabid mutt, he and Impmon had made it to that other shitty old man’s office: and it was there that-

“...!” Dirk’s hands instantly went to his neck, even as his throat went dry and clenched with horror at his realization. Perfectly smooth and unscarred: and, as he pulled his hands away and looked down at them, there wasn’t the faintest trace of any blood from a wound.

“But I suppose I could stand to be a bit clearer.” And the old man started up again. “This is the ideal state of your soul at the time of your death, free of blemishes and wounds. If you so wish, you could cover yourself with but a thought.” At that, he gestured to his own clothes: a business suit, with an open-collared shirt. “And I’d encourage you to do so. This is about as uncomfortable for me as it is for you.”

“Fuck off.” Christ, he just couldn’t catch a break today. “Alright, so I’m dead. Thanks for spelling that one out, pal. Now, if you don’t mind: where am I? How did I get here? And who the fuck are you? Because if you have anything to do with that stupid set of triangles or those assholes who take forever to say nothing, you can piss off right now and let me go to Hell in peace.”

“That’s more like it.” The man let out a ‘hmmph’ in amusement, and smiled with a lopsided, toothy grin. “Lucky for you, I don’t like keeping people hanging. To put it simply, you’re in the liminal space between your previous reality and the next. You’re here because whilst your body may have died, your partner’s is alive- at least, for now. Who I am doesn’t matter- and besides, the answer probably wouldn’t do you any good as you are now.”

“... Hell’s that supposed to mean?” Dirk could only manage that much as the man answered him. Something about him seemed irritatingly familiar, although he couldn’t put his finger on it. So, instead, he shook his head and clarified: “Liminal space? If I’m such a dumbass, dumb it down for me, buddy.”

“Right, I guess you didn’t survive long enough to figure your situation out beyond the basics.” The man shrugged. “I’ll let you off on that one, so I guess I owe you an explanation. A partnered Digimon will hatch from their egg with their memories intact, correct? A partnered human doesn’t have the same regenerative faculty, but their soul and consciousness can survive even if their body dies.”

“... So I’m a ghost now?” The man’s explanation was surprisingly sensible, although everything else left him feeling as confused as before. Everything about this entire situation was bizarre, and he was only just keeping up. And now, his most pressing concern was: “Am I stuck like this, then? You said there’s another reality?”

“This is just a halfway point between that world and yours, yes. If both the human and Digimon in a partnership die, they move to the next one and stay there until the universe decides that you’re needed.” At that, he added: “Of course, that means that so long as one lives, the other survives, whether they want to or not. I spent a long time waiting for my partner to join me, let me tell you that much.”

“Hold on.” Once again, Dirk was grateful for the clarity of the explanation given, but there was still a lot being left unexplained. “Your partner? You’re a Tamer? Were a Tamer?” But even beyond that: “How are you here if you moved on? Am I actually going to be stuck like this?”

“Relax, kid.” Mercifully, the man shook his head to disavow Dirk of that idea. “I’m here because I hitched a ride with your friend. Dynasmon reduced himself to an egg fighting Millenniummon. When it evolved to Moon=Millenniummon and created the spacetime cocoon, one of the Dynasmon from the next world stepped in to help: and I stepped in to help you.”

“You’re losing me here.” And straight back to nothing making sense. “What’s a Millenniummon? What’s a spacetime cocoon? And why is some shitty old man I’ve never met coming from some weird afterlife to help me?”

“Alright, let’s get this in one go. Millenniummon is the artificial Digimon that Masashi Takeda, the man who killed you, created to elevate Japan to the status of a global superpower. Once it starts developing an actual intellect, it becomes powerful enough to warp time and space even before it reaches its completed state: and if that ever happens, it becomes powerful enough to hop between realities and destroy them.”

“... Damn.” Now he wished he hadn’t asked.

“Thankfully, things aren’t as bleak as they seem.” But the old man didn’t so much as miss a beat after that horrifying explanation. “Before it fully forms, Millenniummon is as vulnerable as any other Digimon. If you and your friends can stop its current form- Moon=Millenniummon- from completing its transformation, your world will be safe: at least, until next time.” But then, his expression darkened behind his glasses. “If not... that’s when we come in.”

Before Dirk could question what he meant, the man raised his hand, and snapped his fingers. A moment later, and the world around them finally sprung into life.

The sky was the first to change: first shifting from steely gray to a bright, dazzling blue: and then, before Dirk knew it, the sands beneath them became more and more distant as he and the old man seemed to rush upwards into the heavens above. Countless miles of blue tore by, but Dirk felt nothing but amazement as they climbed further and further into the sky: amazement that only grew as they passed the blue entirely, breaching into the dark expanse of space as the very stars themselves gleamed in the sky above.

That amazement could only last so long, however. As he looked around, Dirk’s eyes fell upon what the man had meant to show him: and he felt them widen as his stomach churned.

Before them was the solar system: and near the centre, Earth lay ruined. The beautiful blue sphere was covered by vast, dark red and grey clouds of ash and flame that smothered everything that hadn’t yet died. And reaching up out of that cloud, almost seeming a part of it with how its awful body billowed and undulated with the power coursing through it, was a two-headed dragon. One moment, it was ‘small’ enough that it only peered over the top of the atmosphere that it had choked with dirt and fire. The next, it grew so large that the sphere it had emerged from was swallowed up entirely in its vast, dark entrails, and the moon similarly disintegrated as it passed through one of its two great claws like a mote of dust swallowed up by the wind. It only continued to grow with every given moment as more and more matter was absorbed into it, and soon, the entire expanse of the now-ruined solar system was filled, the light of of its four baleful eyes replacing the sun that it had devoured as it turned its gaze elsewhere.

Words failed Dirk as he gazed upon the scene. Amidst the infinite cascade of emotions that the sight provoked in him, he recognized one of them as similar to what he’d felt to look upon Kimeramon when it had first appeared before them all those months ago. But Kimeramon had still registered with him as a being, something they could overcome: this creature was different.

ZeedMillenniummon was. Takeda had hoped to create a new God to honour as the centrepiece of his restored nation: and he’d created a force of the universe that devoured and destroyed everything around it.

But then, a new light appeared: and Dirk’s mouth fell agape.

“Every time something like Millenniummon gets strong enough to endanger other realities, we step in to contain it.” As the man spoke, a new light appeared in the abyssal nightmare above them: one, and then many others following to surround the abomination that had swallowed up the star and its spheres. As they began to move in tandem, it became clear even without the man’s explanation that they were beings moving against the monstrosity: but their light was so brilliant that Dirk couldn’t discern anything about them. ZeedMillenniummon’s eyes lit up and the space around it filled with a deadly light for millions of kilometers around as it swatted at them with claws that ruptured nebulas and collapsed countless celestial bodies into clouds of smoke and dust with every swing. Every attack dealt irreparable damage and ravaged the universe around it: but against all odds, and against all of Dirk’s expectations, the lights around it only blazed brighter as they faded back in and out of reality to avoid the assault of their target, weaving around every hyperdestructive barrage like a trained fighter around the swings of a drunk.

“The moment it fully develops, it becomes too powerful for us to properly defeat.” The man’s tone was dark, by contrast. But then came the “However”. The lights gathered, becoming one collective prominence that nearly blinded Dirk and sent the abomination they were fighting reeling with an infinitely reverberating shriek and an attempt to cover its eyes: and in that very moment, he understood what the man meant.

In the one moment of hesitation that ZeedMillenniummon offered them, the collective body of lights drove themselves into the centre of its vast mass, disappearing deep into it. And then fresh, new light burst forth from the wound that they had left. ZeedMillenniummon’s shriek became a reality-warping roar that shook even the very frame of the universe around it: but another moment passed, and as the light formed into a distinct shape, so did the warping of the world around it cease. The beings of light emerged from the centre of the structure that they had installed into the abomination: before disappearing to a place beyond seeing.

And though ZeedMillenniummon lashed out and voiced its undying hatred for the beings that had confined it, it could not follow: the light had formed fully now, into chains of code that bound it tight, and kept it sealed in the universe that it had ruined.

“Of course, even if we stop the damage from spreading, countless people would have already died.” Once again, the sky changed: the scene of the wounded and imprisoned abomination fading back out into the steely gray of before. “By the time we move against it, it’s already too late: all we can do is make sure it stays in its own universe, and starves as everything goes cold. We can’t do anything to fully manifest against Millenniummon: but there are things we can do to turn the tide back before it strikes- and that’s why I’m here.” And the man turned to look directly at Dirk, his eyes clearly steeled and serious even behind his dark glasses. “If you get back out there, you can spare your world this fate. Dynasmon came because there was an opening for him. I came with him because someone had to get you back to your partner before it was too late. This may be all I can do: but even the slightest edge may be all you need to send that monster screaming back into oblivion.”

Once again, Dirk had too many questions. But this time, even he could tell that they didn’t matter: in the face of what he’d just seen, nothing mattered. “So I need to go find Impmon and stop this… thing from destroying the entire universe. We can do that, right?”

“It won’t be easy, but it’s possible.” The man nodded to Dirk. “In my time, someone told me that he got through his own encounter with Millenniummon by reminding himself of one simple fact. The world might change, and fate might come calling, but the future will always be there for you so long as you’re willing to fight for it.”

“No fate but what we make, right?” This time, it was Dirk’s turn to nod. “Alright, old man. All I need to do is get back out there, find Impmon, and victory’s as good as ours?”

“Like I said, it won’t be easy. But I know you- and everyone else- can make it.” But the dark expression on the old man’s face returned. “When you get out there, you’re going to see things. Even before you find your partner, you’re going to have to stand your ground. And from what you told me yourself: you’ve got a lot to answer for.”

“... Do I know you, old man?” Alright, even with the inspiration, something about the man seemed annoyingly familiar. It wasn’t just the reminder of his previous encounters with the mysterious entities of the Digital World: something about him seemed much more personally familiar. “Because you sure as hell seem to think you know me.”

“You may, or you may not. It all depends on whether you can make it through this fight.” But whatever the truth was, it didn’t seem like he was going to be privy to it. Instead, the dark expression softened and the man pointed to behind Dirk: and turning, he saw a breach appear in the otherwise blank world around them. “We’ll meet again, one way or another. Who knows. I might even get to tell you who I am if you’re ready enough by then.” That got the old man chuckling: but then he shook his head. “Now, go. They need you, and you need them.”

Through the breach, Dirk could see the state of the world he’d left behind: or, rather, he would have seen it, if not for the thick fog that swallowed it up. Already, he could tell that the man wasn’t trying to scare him as he stared into the portal to the developing hellscape. But fear had never stopped him before: and neither had common sense. They weren’t going to stop him now, not if the others needed him.

“You fucking better, you old geezer.” And with those last words, Dirk leapt through the hole between realities and back into the world of the living. And as it closed behind him, leaving the old man alone, it was with a slowly-fading farewell of “I swear, next guy who tries being vague with me is getting a boot so far up their ass-”
___
“Of course, turns out he wasn’t kidding.”

Beelzemon had completely dissociated from everything going on around him long ago. Even as pain from the situations his movement across the timeline landed him in continued to jolt at him, he could only remain in stunned silence as the voice of his dead partner spoke to him.

“When I first got here, I ended up in the same situation you’re in now.” Without a body of his own, Dirk couldn’t shiver or shudder at the recollection: but his tone of voice was enough to suggest that what he’d seen had shaken him to his core. “But after some time, I made it through and got to you. Moon=Millenniummon… Hah. Old geezer was right about something else. It’s not impossible to beat. It may be powerful, and it may be smart, but it doesn’t understand other living beings. It doesn’t understand that people don’t see things in black and white: or let facts get in their way.”

Beelzemon couldn’t glare at the voice, but he let his silence speak for him. After the initial shock of the voice identifying itself faded, indignance had rushed in to replace it: so, the idiot hadn’t quite got himself killed, after all. That was one thing, leaving him stuck with a simpleton that even death couldn’t rid him of, but the bullshit he’d proceeded to spew after identifying himself was another.

“You expect me to believe any of this crap?” For the first time in a while, Beelzemon broke his silence to directly scorn Dirk. “No one Digimon could be that powerful! This is just an illusion, and soon as I’m out of it I’m gonna stick my claws down that damn cat’s throat and take my Crest back, leave all those other idiots to clear up while I enjoy my freedom.”

“No, you’re not.” Dirk wasn’t shaken by his partner’s response. “I didn’t want to believe it, either, but he was right. Even now, can’t you feel everything that’s happening to you? This is more than an illusion. This thing’s got the fabric of time and space in its grubby little hands, and if we sit around wasting any more time, it’ll be tearing them up. Stop pretending to be something you’re not and-”

“Something I’m not? What the fuck do you know about me?” But neither was Beelzemon by Dirk’s words. “I told this to the cat and his little buddy, but you only met the me that that asshole made when he sealed my memories away. This is who I am, you worthless sack of meat: I am Beelzemon, the Demon Lord of Gluttony.” If it were possible, he’d be spitting with rage and disgust. ”Your worthless friend was just a fake someone thought they could control long enough t-”

“Bullshit.”

Beelzemon paused. As blindingly angry as he was, there was no mistaking the conviction in that voice.

“Excuse me?”

“You may have lost your memories, but the Digimon I knew all these months was no fake. You’re just like I was, Beelzemon. Putting up barriers and refusing to be sincere because you’re tired of losing, tired of being hurt. Why do you think we got stuck together?”

“Ridiculous. What have I got to hide? Life bit me, so I bit back: and I bit it so hard that nobody had the balls to fuck with me.” Now Beelzemon was sure that Dirk was bluffing. “Trusting others only ever holds you back- or worse, gets you killed! I got dragged into the Dark Area with all those idiots and savages, and you got your head cut off. The difference is, I picked myself back up and got on my own two feet. What about you? All you ever did was get yourself hurt again and again, never learning anything!”

“You’re wrong-”

“You kept charging into danger, treating your life like it wasn’t worth anything- you almost got me killed too, with that stupid fucking stunt you pulled with Omegamon!”

“Beelzemon, listen-”

“You bared your heart to that stupid girl, chasing after her like an animal after a meal, and then acted like it was her fault that you were stupid enough to expect something in return- like you didn’t deserve it for being such a sniveling little shit.”

“Please, listen-”

“Hell, like I said! Only reason you’re here right now is because you were stupid enough to get yourself killed!” Frothing at the mouth all but in reality, Beelzemon finished. “Don’t you ever compare yourself to me. I made my own way in life, expecting nothing but what I could take with my own two hands. You’re just some shitty little brat who had his big break fall into his lap and expected everything to fall into place after that. A little rat that got itself killed biting off more than it could chew!”

“... You’re right.”

“Hmmph.” Beelzemon huffed triumphantly. “See, that wasn’t h-”

“No, you’re right about me.” But Dirk was quicker: and this time, the conviction returned to his voice, even as it began to crack with emotion. “Like I said, Beelzemon, I saw things when I came back to the world, too. All that time I convinced myself I was being strong, doing what nobody else could so that they didn’t have to- I was being selfish. I wanted people to care about me on my own terms, see me how I wanted them to see me. Everything I did, I did to make that happen: to keep them from seeing the real me. I hurt myself to convince them that I was strong enough to take it. To convince myself the same thing. And you know what? It’s exactly what you did, you bastard.”

Once again, Beelzemon growled with fury. But Dirk was having none of it.

“Taking and doing what you want, consequences be damned- you think it makes you strong? It makes you a coward, using power to hide from reality. To hide from your real feelings. Just like me, you hurt yourself and others to convince yourself that you weren’t weak: but you realized that, eventually, didn’t you?”

Beelzemon readied himself to roar back. But then he felt himself freeze up. The dissociation he’d forced himself into as he yelled back and forth with the voice of his former Tamer gave way to the recreated reality of Moon=Millenniummon’s temporal prison.

And all words failed him as he beheld what awaited him.
___
The sight of the Dark Area was nothing new to Beelzemon. An entire world lurking beneath the surface of a sphere distant from its star: the recreation of the ancient Digital World’s subterranean landscape, vast, dark and cold if not for the efforts of those who were imprisoned there to make it habitable. In the distance, the fires and lights of desperate settlements lit up the otherwise-impenetrable darkness that surrounded them on all sides, illuminating stalagmites and stalagmites that jutted up and down for lengths of entire kilometers.

But the light that bore down on Beelzemon now, freezing his soul with terror, was all on account of the being that looked down on him. The creature’s golden, dazzling brilliance obscured details of its form, perhaps intentionally: but there was no mistaking what its figure resembled, nor the structure that spread down from the void that opened behind it.

“I will be clear with you, my child. I have not approached you because of your strength.”
The giant spider’s mandibles remained stationary as it spoke: the voice that washed over the Demon Lord before it emanated from some disembodied psychic wavelength, much like that of Examon and that abominable insect they’d fought. “If I sought the most powerful of your pack, I’d have not given you a second thought before Lucemon caught my eyes.”

“Then why?” Beelzemon began to speak, even as the Beelzemon of the present was rendered speechless by the awesome, awful sight before him. “Why me?”

“Because I see something in you, child.” Extending a metallic, ornate limb, the being pressed it to Beelzemon’s head before he could even perceive the movement: and although the Beelzemon of the present only winced at the phantom pain, he soon froze as his past self screamed with pain and anguish.

“The others may have their qualms, but they’ve chosen their paths.” The golden spider was unmoved, even as Beelzemon collapsed to his knees. “But you’re different. A glutton, only destroying and consuming to fill a void within yourself. You’ve made your bed, and you’ve laid in it, as you mortals say: but I wonder if you’d make the same mistakes if I gave you a second chance?”

“... So this is what you meant?” Beelzemon’s torpor was interrupted by the return of Dirk’s voice. The change in surroundings seemed to have caught him off-guard as well: the conviction in his voice was now overshadowed by horror akin to Beelzemon’s own. “This... thing got to you?”

“...No… This isn’t how I remember…” Beelzemon finally found his voice again:

“Please.” But the desperate, begging plea of his past self stopped him cold once more. “I know I don’t deserve it, but I’m sick of this! I’m sick of hurting people, and I’m sick of devouring everything!” Beelzemon felt his stomach clench: not from the horror he was feeling, but from shame and remorse. “And I’m sick of watching the same happen to everyone else around me, watching them turn into monsters more and more with every passing day! Please, if you’ve decided against helping them, at least let me!”

“It’s like I said.” Dirk sounded shaken too: whatever truth he’d realized, seeing it laid bare was frightening. “It’s not an illusion, it’s the past, exactly as it happened.”

“Very well, then.” And the spider spoke once more, as countless webs of light erupted from the point on Beelzemon’s head that it had touched. Both Beelzemon, past and present, screamed: but to no avail as the webs enveloped him amidst the angry burning of his Crest. “I will grant you reprieve from here, and set you loose to make a fresh start. Come, child. There is much work to be done.”

And the world changed once again as Beelzemon’s consciousness faded out.
___
“... I wasn’t quite expecting that.”

“Just go away.” Beelzemon couldn’t even force himself to be angry any more. Sounding more weak and defeated by the moment, all he could muster up was: “I started off weak, and nothing ever changed. Just let me rot in here, then maybe I won’t feel it when that thing kills me.”

He heard Dirk sigh, but didn’t respond. He was about to dissociate back into blissful ignorance, when-

“There’s no running this time, you little rat.”

Beelzemon flinched: but then froze up anew. That voice didn’t belong to Dirk. No, that was-

Words failed him as he focused on his surroundings and confirmed his fears. Wherever he was, his vision was fully consumed by the dark shape that pinned him to the ground. Two silver limbs, a distressing synthesis of anthropoid and arthropod, gripped his arms and pulled them to either side with force just shy of sufficient to shatter his bones and dislocate his joints. Beyond them, eight legs rested stationary, each one’s silhouette clear enough to reveal the bizarre jaw-like structures that adorned the topmost joint of each. Behind the sheer bulk of its face and his own failing vision, the body that made up the remainder of the being was obscured: but the dark blue mask-like crest that rested atop that face and the two sigils etched into it in red and green were sufficient to identify the being and instill the appropriate amount of fear.

“... Beelzemon, is this thing anything to do with what we just saw?” Even Dirk couldn’t mask the horror that the sight instilled in him. There was no escaping it: the very presence of the monstrous being radiated menace that sent both of their instincts ablaze.

“Killing me isn’t going to accomplish anything, Yinzhumon.” But miraculously, that fear didn’t seem to extend to the version of Beelzemon pinned by the monstrous silver spider. If anything, he seemed tired of the sight of him. “He used us both. Like it or not, we have to own up to that fact.”

“That’s all well and good for you, but it changes nothing for me.” Miraculously indeed, as the space beneath the being’s mask opened up to reveal a pair of massive fangs: and grotesque, seemingly infinite rows of lamprey-like teeth behind them, a horrible mouth that let out a low, angry growl in an animalistic tone entirely divorced from the creature’s disembodied voice. “That bastard’s taken something important to me- something important to the both of us.” At that, a second, unfamiliar voice overlaid itself on on Yinzhumon’s scarily smooth tone. A moment later, however, it disappeared as the spider continued. “So talk, Beelzemon. Before you become the second Lord of Gluttony who only wished I’d killed them.”

“Look, I don’t know anything more than you-” Yinzhumon tightened his grip at that, and Beelzemon barely held his composure together as those terrible fangs began to glisten with a black essence- “But listen to me.” And yet, the Beelzemon of that time was unshaken, even as he grimaced at the pain. “I lost my own Tamer, once- and even if he’s not gone, I remember how it felt- what it did to me. Those kids- yours and Chronomon’s. We still have a chance to save them.”

“Not for long, if you don’t talk.” Yinzhumon let out another animalistic growl of rage. Only this time, his smooth tone cracked with the same rage: and what seemed to be a hint of anguish, as he tightened his grip enough to finally squeeze one of Beelzemon’s arms from his socket.

“Fuck!” And finally, Beelzemon’s own composure came close to matching that of his present self as he let out a scream of his own. “Christ, when did you get so goddamn emotional?” And again, as the other Beelzemon continued to tempt the fate hanging above him.

But against all logic, the grip of those disturbingly human pedipalps loosened. And then Yinzhumon spoke again, in a softer tone.

“He said what’s common nature for mortals is a disease for the likes of him and I, right?” The fangs retracted, and the jaws beneath the mask closed up again as the spider sighed. “I don’t see it quite the same way, but I’ve been infected all the same. It’s not just those kids- it’s everyone I’ve met since I woke up again. And I’ll let Daemon burn me down to nothing again before I let that bastard wipe all that away for his ridiculous ideas.”

“Then let me help you.” And this time, as the other Beelzemon spoke, it was in a similarly soft tone. “I may not know any more than you about where that monster took them- but I remember how it felt to lose my own Tamer. No-one deserves to feel that way, and if I can do anything to spare them it, I will. I know what being around humans does to things like us, Yinzhumon: you’ve nothing to be ashamed of.”

“... This can’t be real.” And the present Beelzemon spoke for the first time since he’d realized what was happening.

And yet, he felt Yinzhumon finally release his grip as, terrifyingly enough, the spider began to chuckle. “Never said I was ashamed, Beelzemon.” Slowly, but surely, the spider’s silver body rippled and began to melt away, retracting back into a smaller body that began to form before the Demon Lord’s eyes. “They said I shouldn’t be so quick to distrust people- and maybe that’s another part of them that I have to take to heart. I have to say, at the very least, I never thought I’d feel guilty for breaking your arm.”

“Don’t sweat it.” The other Beelzemon’s tone was slightly gingery, but he managed a chuckle of his own as a black aura stitched the broken bone back together in an instant, and as he climbed back up to his feet to face the newly-formed humanoid figure before him. “What can I say, time makes fools of us all.” And then, as he shook his head to compose himself, he added the words that finished the present Beelzemon off once and for all.

“I never thought I’d actually be happy to rely on someone else.”
____
Wherever or whenever Beelzemon’s timeline took them to after that, it didn’t matter. As his meeting with Yinzhumon faded out, both he and Dirk fell quiet for a while: both waiting for the other to break the silence.

“I’m sorry, Dirk.” And with a voice strained with emotion, and finally cracked down to a soft, tired tone Beelzemon- no, Impmon was first to go. “I’m so, so sorry.”

The colour and motion of their surroundings slowed down and faded out. Static swallowed up Impmon’s vision, and gigantic cracks blasted through the increasingly obscured world to let the light of reality back in, a figure became visible to him at long last: a figure as welcome as the light itself.

“Don’t be.” And with rare tears running down his face, Dirk managed a smile despite the emotion he was awash with. “Welcome back, you little idiot.”

Digimon: The Convergence of the Human and Digital Worlds

And just a one-off to introduce some mad lads you'll hopefully be meeting soon:

Durandamon and Bryweludramon vs Dorugoramon. Fight!

Intro (Durandamon): "Wait, lad, isn't this that crazy wolf dragon that Alphamon was bonded to?"

Intro (Bryweludramon): "They seem familiar, but it matters not. Either they grasp victory by their own merits, or they taste defeat by their own limits."

Victory (Durandamon): "Hell, they certainly fought like they were, at least. I'm all shagged out here."

Victory (Bryweludramon): "Well fought, but futile in the end. Our bond is unimpeachable to the last."

Defeat (Durandamon): "STOP, STOP, WE GIVE IN! SHIT, WE GIVE IN!"

Defeat (Bryweludramon): "My armour is as unimpeachable as our bond, but I would still greatly appreciate if you could accept your victory and stop hitting us."

Digimon: The Convergence of the Human and Digital Worlds

And a few more, why not?

---

Omegamon vs Alphamon. Fight!

Intro: "Must we fight, old friend? You brought us together, why not rejoin us? With you at my side, we could bring this world together under Yggdrasil's justice!"

Victory: "It pains me to do this, but you give me no recourse. I will remember you as long as I live, Alphamon."

Defeat: "Why? Why do you reject me? Why did you abandon me? Why have you abandoned your ideals? Why have you come back to destroy everything we stood for?"

---

Omegamon vs Literally Anyone Else:

Intro: "I have no words to spare on you, filth. Those who would stand opposed to the will of Yggdrasil must be dealt with."

Victory: "This is but the truth. Ideals without strength are futile, and strength without ideals only consumes itself: what hope do you have against one with both at their call?"

Defeat: "No. I won't accept this. I've still got some fight left in me, heath-"

---

Seraphimon vs Ophanimon. Fight!

Intro: "Let me make this much clear: I am sorry that I couldn't stop the Council from passing judgement on you. But if you think you can take that out on my Tamer and myself, I can show you what I talked them down from doing to you.

Victory: "Fortunately for you, one of us kept hold of their ideals throughout all these long years. Maybe a spell as Nyaromon will cool that head of yours."

Defeat: "Well, this is it. You really are on your own in your little rampage, now: I only hope the closure was worth it."

Digimon: The Convergence of the Human and Digital Worlds

And a few extra while the ol' brain's hot, including a character that most of you haven't properly met yet:

---

Parasimon vs Alphamon. Fight!

Intro: "Come back to clear up your mess, have you? Too little, too late. Choke on it and die."

Victory: "Lucky for you, I'm not so far gone that I'd enjoy this. Hold still, and I'll give you the quick death that your filth denied to so many."

Defeat: "Well done, First. One more dead, and many thousands to go before you're done. Come on, then: be done, so I can rest!"

---

Daemon vs Ophanimon. Fight!

Intro: "My, what a mess you've become. How so very easily virtue disappears into the red haze of rage, when one surrenders to it rather than fights to shackle it.

Victory: "I feel like I should apologize to Seraphimon, should I get the chance: but perhaps that won't be necessary. After all, it was always my duty to put down rampaging beasts."

Defeat: "Exult while you can. You've only pushed back the inevitable: perhaps the next we meet, the worms in your brain will have devoured you entirely."

---

Orci Zeta vs Anyone. Fight!

Intro: "[UNINTELLIGIBLE SOUNDS OF INTENSE RAGE]"

Victory: "[TRIUMPHANT SOUNDS OF INTENSE RAGE]"

Defeat: "[DYING SOUNDS OF INTENSE RAGE]"

Digimon: The Convergence of the Human and Digital Worlds

Well, it's been real quiet, so it's time for Fighting Game Quotes: Revised Characterization Edition.

---

GranDracmon vs Zhuqiaomon. Fight!

Intro: "So, it comes to this. I'm hardly surprised. Gods only last as long as they remain unquestioned."

Victory: "Rest free, brother. You lived enslaved by mortal delusion, but you leave this world the force of nature you were born as."

Defeat: "Here I lie, just another monster consigned to the abyss of history. How long do you think it'll be before you join me?"

---

Lilithmon vs Parasimon. Fight!

Intro: "Hmmph. We finally meet face to face, Attack Dog of Yggdrasil. Too mean to fall with your master?"

Victory: "Take it from me: chasing after someone like a ray of light in the distance will only lead you to ruin. Now die, and begone from my path."

Defeat: "One more fool dead, what will it avail you? My Lord still lives: pray he sees fit to end you quicker than you finished me."

---

Orci Gamma (Primus) vs Imperialdramon. Fight!

Primus: "Using Yggdrasil to force your way to the top? Impressive, I have to admit. But you're as limited as all the other fools who choose to constrain themselves: come, and witness unfettered might!"

Victory: "Your time is up, teacher. You climbed to the top of the world with a God as your foothold: let's see how far I can climb with nothing to hold me back!"

Defeat: "No. NO! I refuse! I won't fade away like those other worthless husks-"

---

Orci Kappa (Base) vs Anyone. Fight!

Intro: "Eh."

Victory. "Woo."

Defeat: "Ah well."

Digimon: The Convergence of the Human and Digital Worlds

@tobiax Don't you mean FOUR-POSTS-IN-ONE-MONTH-HYPE? This is Convergence's birthday week, motherfuckers.

And eh, don't worry about it: it's something to keep the momentum up, and you could always edit in something to tie it in to Drac's bit if you wanna take another crack at it?

Digimon: The Convergence of the Human and Digital Worlds

hope y'all don't mind if i drop an E X T R A T H I C C post for this E X T R A T H I C C seventh anniversary

Digimon: The Convergence of the Human and Digital Worlds

Examon couldn’t quite tell how long it had been since the return to his failures in the wars against the Demon Lords had faded away. It hadn’t taken long after the deaths of Gankoomon, Jesmon and their best and brightest had played out before him in vivid detail for him to be catapulted fully back into his long years of helplessness in the belly of the Knights’ operation.

“... This isn’t right. This isn’t how I remember.”

But this time, something had changed. The sensations that had been so vividly recreated when he relived the concluding massacres of the war were nowhere to be found as he moved further through his past.

When Examon had first lived through the decay of the Knights, he had been a young warrior: traumatized by the loss of mentors, friends, and fledgling students. When Imperialdramon subsumed the helm of the Knights from Omegamon, installed and upheld savage lunatics as the protectors of the realm and trapped the Digital World in his controlled chaos, he’d felt as helpless to change things as a child trapped at the lowest level of servitude to the Knights’ machine.

Now, all he felt as he relieved those long, awful years was the strength he’d neglected and denied himself. He still saw the atrocities unfold. Temples built in honour of the Sovereigns and Ancients were razed and their occupants driven out into the bleak wilderness; but this time, he saw the hesitation and regret in the eyes of the soldier that tore them down and chased the victims away. Councils were held to discuss the invasion of yet another remote and independent part of the Digital World, and the motion passed for the Knights to swallow them up like a snake descending upon a mouse: but this time, Examon felt the anger that would have let him speak up, and knew the qualms amongst others that would have given that objection the floor.

Examon remembered a conversation that he’d had with Siggy when he’d first come to the human world. Supposedly, humans became almost entirely different creatures every seven years: all cells that had been alive at the beginning of that interval of time would have died off and been completely replaced by its end. It had seemed surreal, almost unbelievable at the time, especially when Siggy had cracked a rare joke that he’d be a completely different human being by the time he was an old man.

But now, the ridiculousness of it all was a spark of light in the darkness. Unlike Siggy, Examon may or may not have been made of the same data as he had those many years ago: but like the human he’d come to call partner- no, the human he’d come to call friend, he’d become almost entirely a different person from his youth.

Reliving the horrors of the war had shaken Examon; but as memories of the intervening years between then and now washed over him, little about them shook him. At the time, he’d felt as helpless as he had when he’d been laid low by the enemy. Now with age and experience behind his belt, he realized how much of a fool he’d been. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been the cleanest affair, but the possibility of fighting back against Imperialdramon and his goons had been real from the start. The loss of Alphamon had been a terrible one, but it shouldn’t have been the death of his hope. As poor as their relationship had been, Craniamon may have sided with him. Even distraught over UlforceVeedramon’s disappearance, Magnamon might have joined him. He wondered how he’d even questioned the loyalty of Gallantmon, MirageGaogamon and ShineGreymon. And-

"You heard me. Go to assist your master. I won't stop you."

It wasn’t simply age and experience that differentiated Examon from his younger, foolish self: it was knowledge of his fellow Knights. Chinks in the armour of Imperialdramon’s regime had existed even beyond the obvious weakpoints: even Parasimon, deeply twisted and beholden to the will of Yggdrasil as he was, may have given him and his fellow skeptics their piece if they’d cared to approach him as a fellow Knight rather than as an insurmountable obstacle. The foundation of the order that Imperialdramon had built through hook and crook had not stood upon the steel of domination, but the sand of deception and resignation. Their situation had been bleak, yes. But never had it been hopeless. If only they- no, if only he had the courage to stand up for what he believed and accept the risks of mounting resistance, none of this might have come to pass.

In any other situation, the realization may have been harrowing, or even devastating. A final, grim punctuation to the mess his life had been, the final word on his impotence.

But in this situation, it was all that he needed. His consciousness of his agency would come to haunt him soon enough, but in that very moment, all he felt was something breaking as the visions of his past faded into nothing.

Courage had been all he needed then to fight back against Imperialdramon, and it was what he needed now to escape the grasp of Moon=Millenniummon.
---

An empty twilight void was all that Alphamon could see, for she had spent so much time in slumber beneath Dorumon’s consciousness that she was spared much of the horror endured by her previous and current hosts; couldn’t torment her with a past she had mostly abstained from anyway.

Was she lucky? Maybe she was; maybe she wasn’t. Hard to say.

Her presence as a primarily spoken myth left her with virtually no tangible mark on the Digital World, made worse by Imperialdramon having scrubbed much of her remaining presence within the Royal Knight’s ranks and exemplified by Dorumon being fully unaware of her presence.

Observe. Wait and observe. Protect in silence, then observe again.

How long had Alphamon played that role over and over again? Was she not sick of it?

“Of course I was.”

Was her regular sneaking sprees not a proof of that? Was her yearning to talk with other Digimons outside of her circle not clear enough when she approached the Rookies she rescued during the fair? Was her decision to sleep and create Dorumon from a fragment of herself not a loud statement of her desire to understand what life looked like through the eyes of those they were sworn to protect?

Then why didn’t she speak up? She was the Knight of the Empty Seat. The other Knights would most likely listen to her had she just said something in the first place. While they wouldn’t outright agree with her, many would’ve given her quandary some thoughts and few could’ve been persuaded to adopt her way of thinking.

“... I thought I was the only one with such an idea.”

Or was she?

When Dorumon became aware of her presence, she acknowledged her with a justified resentment, but she not only acknowledged her existence and independence, but also talked to her much like a sibling would talk to an elder sister she often fought with, but couldn’t live without. It was endearing, in a strange way, and she was quite fond of their exchanges, vitriolic as many of them were.

Despite the power Imperialdramon exerted upon the Knights, Examon still remembered her. Yes, he had every right to resent her for leaving the Royal Knight to become a shadow of itself, but he acknowledged that she used to exist. Through her fusion with him, her presence helped turned the tide of battle against the usurper Imperialdramon and his forces. Examon even made a personal point of throwing a massive fit over her decision to make him her new host, a decision that - once again - she made in her lonesome. He cared about what she did, if only because of the impact it had on him, his human partner and the one particular Digimon he seemed to care beyond mere friendship and alliance.

Looking far back, she then remembered that the Rookies she saved still made the point of expressing their gratitude for her despite their initial fears. Because of her, they could continue to enjoy the fair, to bask in the momentary merriment and live for another day.

Beneath the jet black armor and blue mantle was a Knight so isolated by her own solitude that she was unable to see the other roles she played in her existence. It took her this long to realize that her presence and actions had an impact on others, both good and bad. She may never function the same way other Digimons did, but that didn’t mean that she was disconnected from them.

She was not alone, never was. She was simply too scared to acknowledge that.

The Royal Knight of the Empty Seat was scared of being forever alone.

In the past, that epiphany would’ve left her with more thoughts to mull in her lonesome, not to mention all the denial she could muster, but now, that acceptance became the bright light that manifested in the endless, bottomless twilight room of void as it twisted into a dark tunnel, seemingly trying to drag that light as far away from her reach as possible.

“Oh no, you don’t. You’re not taking that anywhere!”

With a crouch, then a leap, Alphamon chased after the light, the truth she now wished to grasp and never let go again. She had a lot of amendments to make, so she wanted to start with this one: catching that light and reuniting with her allies once more.
---
The barren, unremitting silence within the union of consciousness that formed Examon Mordred was finally broken as a web of fractures split the white void of the mindscape on either side. With a roar and a laborious effort that pulled the borders of the union wide open, Examon’s mind forced its way back into its own time, the tumultuous screaming vortex of his personal timestream fading first into a burst of static and then into a great nothingness that disappeared with a groan as the fractures went with them.

Shaken, but not broken, Examon’s mind adjusted to the merciful silence of the mindscape. Now it was simply his thoughts that wreaked havoc on him: a feeling that age had taught him to cope with, however shakily.

Still, Examon didn’t have much time on his lonesome as a burst of light suddenly came crashing into the already white mindscape and Alphamon ungracefully came tumbling in, rolling once before landing on her back with a wheeze. The chase for the light had been a long and seemingly endless one, but she somehow made it, much to her surprise. With a grunt and a shake of her head, she pushed herself back to her feet, stumbling slightly in the process, and then took a deep breath before turning to see Examon, shaken, but relatively intact.

“Thank you for making it here before I do,” she said to the dragon with a bemused chuckle. What she wouldn’t give to see the familiar grump. “It would’ve been quite egregious for the guest to return before the host.”

“I guess I can take pride in that much.” However, that grump was nowhere to be seen as Examon finally caught his breath and spoke up: a grimace on his face and a chuckle of his own twisting his voice. “But from what I saw, I haven’t exactly got much else to be proud of.”

“You’re not alone in that regard, Examon,” Alphamon calmly replied. She wouldn’t claim to know what he had seen, but from the look on his draconic face, she could guess that it was most likely an unpleasant blast from the past. “There is no joy in being confronted by my own denial, but I suppose I had it coming,” she said with another chuckle, a self-depreciating mockery of herself, “Still, I’m relieved we both made it through.”

“I suppose I have to say the same: I’ve known I’m an idiot as long as I can remember, but it’s taken me long enough to realize just how much of one I am.” Examon continued to chuckle too, his laughter equally self-deprecating as his voice found itself getting shakier. “There I was, going off on you for running off and disappearing: maybe I should have had a word with myself about giving up so quickly.” The chuckles stopped, replaced by a deep sigh. Weak attempts at humour could only carry Examon so far. It was time to be serious.

Alphamon couldn’t help but notice someone was still missing though.

“Where is your partner, Siggy?”

“I don’t know where Siggy is: whatever Moon=Millenniummon did to us, I don’t think it’s as simple as giving us visions of the past.” Examon couldn’t help but shudder at his recollection of the experience. “It felt too real, like I was there when those demons almost bled me out. I don’t know about you, but it took me a bit more than stubbornness to break free of it.”

She could understand why Examon had such a struggle against the bizarre visions. No, scratch that; she even hesitated to call them as such. Rather, they felt like real recollections, almost as if their souls were being placed on that point in time to experience all as it had happened: every sensation, every sound, every turmoil, and every pain.

“I don’t blame you. What I’ve seen was nothing short of a reminder of my past mistakes and failures, one after another. Looking back, it struck me just how lenient you were with your words, given the impact of my selfish actions.” Alphamon nodded, her forlorn gaze obscured by her jet-black armor.

However, she knew that the time to sulk and brood was not now; they had other things to worry about.

“... Maybe so, but I’ve got to face up to the facts myself.” And fortunately, so did Examon. His voice cracked slightly. This time, however, it trembled with remorse instead of dark humour. If it were possible, it was quite likely he’d be holding back tears at that very moment. “I don’t know where Siggy is, or how long it’ll take for him to make it back. I don’t even know if we’ll stand a chance against that thing without him.” He took a deep breath: and then another that turned into a haggard, shaky affair that broke what stoicism was left in his voice altogether. “But I do know something. Too many people have died because I was too stupid to do what I could before it was too late, and if I don’t change that now, he won’t have anything to come back to.”

Alphamon had never seen Examon so… broken, for a lack of better word. For as long as she knew him, the dragon had always held out against whatever chaos they endured together, so to see him looking like he’d lost all hope was quite disheartening, yet it also made him relatable at the same time. Without his stoicism, the dragon became less of this mythical paragon others painted him, along with his fellow Knights, to be and more of a Digimon with his own strengths and weaknesses who just happened to be immensely powerful.

“Neither of us know where Siggy is; that is a fact.” Alphamon slowly walked towards the dragon, giving him his personal space, yet also cutting short the distance between the two of them. “However, I personally have faith in him as much as I do in you. He is a strong man and he will break through just as you have. It will take time, yes, and I’m certain that he will have his struggles as well, but we will eventually be together again.” Pausing for a moment to put more of her thoughts into coherent words, she then said to him, “This will sound incredibly strange, coming from me, but the only thing we can do for him is wait. Still, I understand your frustration, one that I now share myself.” Another pause as Alphamon seemed to be dealing with her own displeasure before she continued on, “It is vexing that we can only stand here and wait. If there was anything we could do to get ourselves up and moving-”

“... God damn it, you old bat.” As Examon found his voice again, something like disbelief was plain in his voice. His eyes widened, shaking in their sockets, and his lips turned up to reveal his teeth-

“I could just about fucking kiss you right now.” But a moment later, and it was clear that it was anything but anger that brought Examon to life again. What had looked like a snarl turned into a uneasy but sincere smile: and what had sounded like cold fury turned into a chuckle, and then into a wheezy chorus of laughter. “There I was, getting mad at you, but you might have just saved us all, you stupid, amazing old bitch.”

The laughter became steadier, but then stopped. When Examon continued, his voice was steady and confident once more. “Siggy may still be out there in that hell, but so long as we’re in this body, he can’t be entirely gone: and we can’t be entirely helpless. Tell me, Alphamon. How many minds does it take to coordinate a Biomerged body?”

Like a ticking clock, Alphamon’s digital mind began to run through all sorts of programs until she seemed to reach a conclusion. “Two, I would assume,” she replied, “which will be the two beings who make up the Biomerged body, in most cases being the human and the Digimon.”

It was then that something clicked, like a new formula derived from this equation.

“However, there are three of us here: you, Siggy, and myself, yet only you and Siggy make up the entire physical data of this Biomerged body whereas I’m only here within an operative capacity and, at any given time, only two minds are required to properly operate a Biomerged body. If we can assume that the data that make up the body is perfectly intact despite what is happening to us mentally, then…” Her eyes lit up with hope as she began to reach what she believed to be the conclusion Examon came up with. “... The two of us might still be able to operate it regularly.”

“Like you said, Siggy’s a good kid. But if we wait for him to wake up, there might not be anything for him to wake up to.” As he’d expected, Alphamon had quickly figured out what he meant. There was no time to waste: and nothing to lose in putting the idea to the test. “He’ll come back when he’s good and ready to come back. And until then, we’ll do everything we can to send that floating pile of garbage to the depths of Hell before it’s too late. I think- no, I’m sure he’d agree. Do what you can, when you can, and don’t lose faith.”

“This untested idea can either be horrendously disastrous or momentous enough to help us hold our ground and turn the tide of battle…” A brief musing in silence, then a soft chuckle from Alphamon. It wasn’t her usual calm chuckle, but one with a tinge of reckless madness and steely determination, much like the reckless bravery of Dorumon. “Well then, Examon, shall we roll the dice together and see if we get a high enough number to see this abomination destroyed?”

“Let’s do it.” Examon had nothing left to say. The time for words had passed. With the familiar hard-headedness coming over Alphamon as he steeled his own resolve, he took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he went about synchronizing with his physical form once more: and as he reached out to Alphamon, a great rush of sensation blasted over them all at once as light broke through into the world around them.
---
[Kept You Waiting, Huh?]

The plan had been simple enough on its own merits. With no realistic chance of taking BanchoLeomon down head-on in his current state, Beelzemon had decided to rematerialize elsewhere in the panicking city and bide his time for an opening. When the sky suddenly turned dark as the world around him was swallowed up by the red and black mist, he saw his opening. He’d surprise BanchoLeomon while his attention was set on whatever the hell that thing from earlier had become, and warp away to another world altogether once he’d torn his crest from the bastard’s deteriorating corpse.

“Truth be told, I can’t fault you for leaving. But that changes nothing.”

But that simple plan had gone all kinds of wrong as he got within a few hundred meters of his target and the goddamn world just about gave out from under him. When he came to, he was still in a ruined city: swallowed up in a bright orange haze of heat and flame that turned everything that still stood into a wavering, indistinct silhouette.

But this time, the bastard that ‘greeted’ him was far worse than BanchoLeomon or Moon=Millenniummon. With no strength left to even attempt escape, Beelzemon settled for trying to curse defiantly at his assailant, to no avail. It was as if he had lost even the most basic control over his own body. However, even if he hadn’t, the unbearable heat of the inferno enveloping his surroundings would have sufficed to silence him; as would the sheer force of the armoured boot crushing his throat as it pinned him by the back of his neck to the ground.

“If only you’d ran and stayed in your hole, you may have enjoyed a painless end.” Beelzemon was helpless to move as he heard a weapon leaving its sheath behind him: and as he felt his very organs begin to boil in place as an even greater heat swallowed up the air around him. “But even freed of your Crest, you couldn’t rise above your own base nature.”

Beelzemon heard himself wheezing out one final growl. Whether it was from defiance or fear, he could no longer tell: but he was helpless all the same as he felt something at his back, a blaze of terror filling his body along with his combusting innards.

“I won’t apologize, Beelzemon.“ Daemon took the hilt of Ira in both hands, aligning the incandescent blade above the former Demon Lord’s core. “But consider this mercy, against what Lilithmon may have inflicted upon you.”

The point of the sword plunged downwards: and, mercifully, Beelzemon’s vision yielded into darkness almost instantly as his core swiftly gave out beneath the overwhelming power of Ira, and all sensation in his body along with it.

“Don’t listen to him!” All except for the voice that jolted him back to awareness, bringing him to another place.
---
“Is this really alright? I never thought I’d care a jot more than I had to for the inmates up there, but here we are.”

This time, the world around him was cold and intensely, uncomfortably bright. An unpleasant hum of mechanical noise filled Beelzemon’s ears from the surroundings, and harsh, fluorescent light assaulted his face as he opened his eyes, enough to make him flinch. He tried struggling, but once again, his body refused to respond. Once again, he couldn’t move: but this time, for as weak and depleted as he felt, he could tell it wasn’t because of physical exhaustion.

Nor, for as effective as they felt, was it the bindings that encased him from head to foot in his cell.

“I getcha. Even they don’t deserve to put up with trash like this.” As his vision cleared, Beelzemon saw the source of the voice from before. His cell was closed up by a transparent door, with a human figure in some kind of bulky uniform standing with his back to him. The voice now was different, however: it seemed to come from the Digimon standing across from the humanoid, a species that Beelzemon couldn’t discern at a glance. “But the Sovereigns and the higher-ups back home can’t agree on how to handle him on account of everything that’s happened, so he’s our problem until then.”

“What, because he used to be one of theirs?” The first voice scoffed. “Goes to show how far connections can get you, huh? First their warden, and now this piece of shit.”

Beelzemon had no idea what the two were talking other than how it confirmed his suspicions that he’d been captured and imprisoned once more: but a rage began to build in his chest that would make Daemon himself take a step back. He was the Lord of Gluttony! If only his body would listen to him, he’d rip the Digimon’s limbs clean from his body and make him watch as he did the same to the human. How dare they talk about him like that!

“Enough.” And then a third voice introduced itself. This time, as Beelzemon looked up, there was no mistaking the speaker’s identity: and an even fouler fury filled him down to his stomach as he looked upon the silhouette of MirageGaogamon. “I had my misgivings about this, but the Commander, Subcommander and Lord Captain explained it clearly in the briefing. However he may have been in the past, this state is a different question entirely. If we can convince him that what happened to his partner wasn’t his fault, we might be able to snap him out of it.”

If, in that moment, Beelzemon had been able to free himself of the bindings, the opening round to his retribution upon the two guards would have been forcing them to watch MirageGaogamon slowly die as he pinned him to the ground and burned him from the inside out with black flames.

Not his fault? Of course it wasn’t his fault! As pleased as he was that his final actions had led to his freedom, that dumb brat had brought his fate upon himself! And what did that stupid mutt know about him? If he remembered right, he could barely handle a Demon Lord’s Captain, let alone the real deal! Where did he get off spouting this bullshit?!

“Look, I don’t like him either, but he’s right.” And then a new voice came. Beelzemon was jolted straight from his dark thoughts about his wardens as the sound came straight into his head. It wasn’t like the others. It spoke directly to him, not around him.

It was the voice from before.

“We don’t have much time, Beelzemon. Please, listen to me, before it’s too late-”

“Fuck you!” This time, Beelzemon’s voice came loud and clear in his head: and the world fell away once again as the tremendous roar shook his mind once again from one place to the next.
---
“So, you had the gall to come back. I’m actually a little bit impressed.”

It was back to being dark, but the air was as cold as before. All around him, disgusting shapes and structures filled the room to the brim. Thick wires and cables ran along from all the ends and walls, connecting into organic devices that further connected into a raised platform in the centre, some kind of altar or reactor. Above that, the top of the building had been torn asunder, letting light in from the night sky above. The view from the breach was one that revealed them to be high above the ground, and the light of the moon, stars and spotlights of the neighbouring skyscrapers illuminated the figure standing atop the central structure.

As he saw who it was, Beelzemon wished he could change her back for Daemon or MirageGaogamon.

“It’s been a while, Beelzemon.” Lilithmon’s tone was calm, but deathly cold: and her concealed glare could well have made him drop dead all by itself. Behind her, her Captain trained his weapon on Beelzemon, the savage smirk that usually covered his face replaced with the same death stare as his mistress. “Come to take your punishment head-on, have we?”

“Hardly.” Beelzemon spoke without realizing it: and his mind screamed with indignant fury at himself. “Don’t play dumb, Lilithmon. You know there’s more going on here than your boyfriend’s letting on.” Seriously, what the fuck!?

The hulking brute of a Captain snarled and readied his weapon: but a raised hand from his mistress a moment later bid him to stop.

“Calm yourself, AvengeKidmon.” Lilithmon’s tone was still calm and measured. Seemed like he hadn’t signed his death-warrant yet: but that didn’t stop his heart from jumping into his mouth as the Lord of Lust stepped forward as her Captain lowered his gun.

“Perhaps, but do you really think some clever little words will be enough to snatch my loyalty away from Lucemon?” This time, Lilithmon’s words were broken by a haughty chuckle: and a fierce clap of red lightning that brought her horrid barbed spear forth from the void and into the grip of her clawed hand. “That may have sufficed for those soft-hearted knights of yours eleven years ago, but you haven’t learned a single thing since then if you think it’ll work on me.”

“Beelzemon!” Suddenly, there was someone at his side. Turning, he saw that there was a small group of humans and Digimon behind him, all but one of them worn down and edging worriedly away from Lilithmon. The newcomer was one of the only two who seemed ready to fight to live: something about the tall, red-haired young woman seemed familiar, but his already-disturbed stomach seemed to do cartwheels on its axis as he saw the Digimon with her.

“Seriously, you have some damn sense of timing.” The Seraphimon was silent and focused even as Beelzemon barely held his sense of composure together at the sight of him. Instead, it was that uncannily familiar girl who did the talking. Predictably enough, she didn’t seem happy to see him: at least, not until she continued. “But I’m glad you came through. Do you think we can hold them?”

“Kid, with the five of us here, we could push them back until the heat death of the universe.” Beelzemon couldn’t believe what he was doing and saying. What kind of next-level hell had he wandered into?

“Hmm. That’s the Beelzemon I remember.” Seraphimon finally broke his silence with a nod of assent: and that was all the push that the Demon Lord needed to dissociate again.
---
“What the goddamn shit was that?” This time, Beelzemon barely paid any attention to the new place he had been sent to. This bizarre situation had made no sense to begin with, and that last experience had somehow dragged his understanding to some point below zero.

“The truth.” And then that damn voice chimed in again. “It’s like what that stupid triangle did to us, but worse. They’re futures- possible futures. And you have to get up, Beelzemon, or that thing’s going to kill-”

“No. Fuck you.” Beelzemon snarled, fury dissociating him straight out of whatever was going on around him once more and into yet another environment. “Who the fuck are you and why the fuck do you think you know me?”

“... Right, you’re an idiot.” The voice sighed. Beelzemon’s resulting snarl was answered with: “Well, you asked at a good time. Looks like this thing shows you the past, too.”

Beelzemon bit down on his snarl. Anger still dangerously close to boiling point, he momentarily allowed himself to regain focus:

"Come on, get up. You gotta get up!" The voice came again: only this time, it wasn’t in his head.

It came from right next to him.

His anger froze solid. A Parrotmon loomed above him, pinning him to the ground with murderously sharp claws. He felt himself scream defiantly as the Digimon attacked: but it wasn’t for his sake.

It was for the boy who’d put himself between them. The boy he’d now gone out of his way to save from the attack of the Parrotmon.

“... Dirk?” The frozen anger melted away, as did Beelzemon’s awareness of his surroundings.

“I knew you were in there somewhere, dumbass.” This time, Dirk’s voice was almost cracked with emotion. “Now, let’s get you out of here.”

Digimon: The Convergence of the Human and Digital Worlds

iirc Examon told BanchoLeomon who Dorugoramon was just before they got their heads fucked by Moon? Won't contest the point about Rodendramon, I'll just leave that with you guys.

Digimon: The Convergence of the Human and Digital Worlds

@Draconis Nevyn and @Psyker Landshark have a collab that needs finishing, then whoever can post.