“The Final Battle Part 2”

By

Jennifer Morton

and

Shelli-Jo Pelletier

* * *

~~~ Sunemon's P.O.V. ~~~

We headed out to find the evil virus when we suddenly ran into Devimon, LadyDevimon and DarkTyrannomon again. We chased them all through the woods, where they eventually led us straight to the virus's castle. However, I have a feeling that was no coincidence. We’ve finally found the virus. Though it doesn't look very threatening, I wouldn't jump to conclusions just yet.

* * *

Jenn and Tai stood together, protectively blocking Skye from their enemy's reach. Their eyes never left the virus cloud as it continued to spread throughout the room. The torches on the wall had been blown out, leaving the room completely dark. The only light was bits of crackling electricity from the dark cloud. Both Digidestined leaders called out to their Digimon:

"Greymon!"

"Glorymon!"

"Digivolve!" they ordered together, gripping their digivices.

"Greymon digivolve to . . . MetalGreymon!"

"Glorymon digivolve to . . . PolarGlorymon!"

The other Digidestined gave their Digimon the signal to digivolve as well. In moments, nineteen Ultimate Digimon stood by their partners, ready to fight!

"Ready! Digimon attack!" yelled Tai.

"Polar Ice Storm!"

"Giga Cannon!"

"Feather Sword!"

"Wolf Claw!"

"Scarring Flame!"

"Flower Cannon!"

"Empress Claw!"

"Celestial Arrow!"

Each attack was swallowed up by the cloud, leaving no impact whatsoever.

"He just absorbed them!" Lina gulped.

The cloud rumbled as shots of electricity flickered and crackled. It was processing the data from the attacks. Suddenly a huge blast of energy was thrown back at the Ultimates. In the blast, they could hear a combined echo of their attack calls. The combination of the Ultimates’ attacks was enough to send the Digimon flying backwards. In midair they de-digivolved back to their Rookie forms. When they hit the ground, their human partners ran to their aid. Much to their horror, their Digimon seemed to be unconscious.

The cloud laughed evilly; its voice made the ground vibrate beneath them. "Had enough yet?"

"Never!" Jenn shook her gloved hand. She ran towards the cloud. A bolt of lightning was shot her way, which she dove and dodged successfully.

The Digimon were weakly forcing themselves to their feet. "We're not giving up so easy," said Foximon as she wobbled a bit . . . then fell back to the floor.

"Foximon, no! You need to save your energy. I don't want to loose you!" Jenn said, running to her friend and restraining the injured fox.

Foximon looked up at Jenn's desperate expression and forced a weak smile. "You won't loose me, Jenn. No matter what happens, we're in this together." She coughed faintly.

"This guy doesn't know who he's dealing with," Diratimon winced, holding a bruised wing.

"Now's not the time to get cocky!" Gatomon reminded the group of FDD’s. "Something tells me we're going to need more then a miracle to defeat this guy, or we'll end up in deep kitty litter."

"That’s right," Magimon agreed with her “twin.”

"Well I'm not waiting for a miracle! We're gonna defeat this thing or die trying!" Jenn cried. When she looked back down at Foximon, her eyes met with a disturbing sight. It was her worst fear come true, her Digimon was slowly dissolving into pixels. "Foximon . . . look what's happening to you!" she sobbed.

The other Digidestiend were terrified to see that the same thing was happening to their Digimon as well. Each one was beginning to break apart, the pixels floating up into the air.

“Yazumon! No!”

“Tentomon, attempt to keep yourself together!”

“You can’t leave me, Pandamon!”

“BIYO!”

No matter how tightly the human children gripped their small friends, it didn’t do any good. At first they could feel the warm skin, fur, and scales under their hands, but it began to turn transparent, and then their hands passed straight through their partners’ bodies. As they looked on with horrified eyes, the pixels of the nineteen Digimon floated up in a stream and began to float toward the center of the dark cloud. It didn’t take long for the last trace of the Digimon to vanish, leaving the huddled group of children alone with the virus cloud.

“It can’t end like this. . . .” whispered Tai, one gloved hand covering his eyes to hide his sadness.

“I-I can’t believe she’s gone. . . .” Jenn said, tears running unchecked down her face.

There was the sound of evil laughter from the cloud, something like the booming of thunder. “Don’t worry, you’ll be joining them shortly.” Lightning began to crawl faster through the dark cloud. Jenn climbed to her feet slowly, hands balled into fists as she glared at their enemy. She prepared herself for the next attack, but . . . it turned out to be something none of them could prepare for.

Looking at their own bodies, the Digi-Destined saw themselves begin to break apart.

The children began to scream in terror, backing away from the platform at the end of the room where the evil cloud was collecting their data particles. Some tried to run to the door to escape, but didn’t make it in time. In moments the room was silent, save for a small rumble of thunder as the cloud stilled.

* * *

When Jenn regained consciousness, she felt white light beating against her closed eyelids. Slowly, with the soft groan of sore muscles, she opened her eyes.

“Cool, Jenn’s back in the land of the living,” reported a slightly familiar voice. Jenn forced her fuzzy eyes to focus and realized it was Matt. Gabumon floated beside him, red eyes showing concern.

Wait, floating!?

“Ah!” Jenn tried to sit up, but she found she was floating as well, in a world of pure white. Her panic was subdued when she saw that all her friends were here, including the Digimon in their Rookie forms.

It didn’t seem like the others had been awake for very long either. They were looking around, trying to make sense of the strange surroundings. Kristina had a wide-eyed, frantic look on her face. “D-did we die!?” she gasped, her voice tight in her throat. “Are we in purgatory!?”

“I don’t think so,” Lexxy said soothingly. “I don’t think we’re even dead.”

“Yet. . . .” Cunomon muttered darkly.

“Quiet, Cuno!”

“Lexxy’s right,” Alex said quietly. “Doesn’t this seem a bit familiar, guys?” His eyes darted toward the original Digidestined wordlessly. The children that were once nothing more than cartoon characters only looked confused.

“Like, how is this familiar?” Mimi wanted to know.

“It kinda reminds me of a snowstorm!” T.K. said, looking at all the white.

“Never mind that,” Lexxy said suddenly. “Izzy!”

“Yes?” The auburn-haired boy looked up at her inquisitively.

"You said you were able to tap into the virus's programming and access our data that he took from the Internet, right?"

"Affirmative."

"Well, what if you were able to access more? What if you bring every FDD in the world here to help us fight?" The black-haired girl grinned fiercely at the surprised and excited expressions of the other children around her, as they realized what this would mean.

"I-I do suppose it's worth an attempt!" Izzy opened up his laptop while the group huddled closer together to watch over his shoulder. He began by pulling up the existing files and documents that he had gathered earlier, of the eleven FDD Digidestined. Files with pieces of artwork and fanfiction flashed across on the screen.

"Hey, that's me!" Foximon twitched her tail as a drawing of her was displayed.

"There’s more of me!" Cunomon pointed his nose up proudly. "I'm a celebrity!"

As the slideshow of images quickly clicked by, there were some that made the FDD’s blush. Fanart of Jennifer and Matt suddenly flashed on the screen. Matt raised one golden eyebrow. "Interesting."

"Um, thanks." Jenn hid her embarrassed expression behind one gloved hand.

As the data was compiling, Izzy pulled some e-mail addresses out of his address book, many of which the FDD Digidestined recognized. The documents flashing across the screen soon changed. No longer were they the familiar Digimon and Digidestined from the imaginations of the eleven children present. There began to appear a wide variety of pictures, fanfictions and websites, all showing different Digimon and human children. The files were all different qualities; some pictures were detailed computer arts while others were mere scribbles on scanned notebook paper. But it was obvious every single file was created with pride and caring, a creation from a person’s own heart.

"Almost . . . done!" Izzy exclaimed, as his fingers flew over the keyboard. “I’ll send this e-mail, asking for help and. . . .” He hit the send button and sat back. "All we can do now is wait and prey for responses. I can’t bring any of this data to life without the human essences to motivate the—"

Just then, "You got mail!" came from Izzy's laptop. The short boy’s eyes widened with surprise at the quick reply. When he opened the e-mail, a ray of golden light beamed through the white atmosphere! It was followed by another, then another. . . ! The once white atmosphere around them was now a cascade of bright colors. Everyone looked up in astonishment as the colors flickered and twinkled like a million Christmas lights strung across the sky.

"That's funny . . . I feel almost like. . . ." Magimon began.

"You feel it too?" Sunemon asked the cat Digimon.

"Hey, are you girls okay?" Gomamon asked, watching the cat and fox Digimon as they began to levitate further upward.

"Sunemon!?" Samee called up to her Digimon.

"Magimon, what's going on?" asked Skye. She then looked down and noticed her and Samee's digivices and Crests were glowing.

The two Digimon disappeared into the colorful ocean above, as they began to glow themselves.

"Magimon warp digivolve to . . . MAGICKMON!"

"Sunemon warp digivolve to . . . KITSUNEMON!!!"

"Oh my god!" Samee stood, staring up at the two Digimon in disbelief. "They digivolved to Mega!"

In Magimon's place there was now a humanoid feline Digimon. Her long, sky blue hair flowed gracefully behind her. Magickmon lifted her arms up in the air as her body began to spin. A ball of blue light formed in her hands and began to grow.

Meanwhile, Kitsunemon floated beside her, a creature wrapped up in a dark cloak, her face mysteriously half-hidden under a hood. Beneath her long, raven bangs glared two red eyes. She pointed one of her long, sharp claws up toward the sky. "FURY OF THE STORM!" she cried, shooting a gust of fire and wind.

"CELESTIAL FAITH!" The ball in Magickmon's hand was thrown in the same direction. Together, both attacks pierced a giant hole in the white abyss as if it was simple fabric. The group of kids and Digidestined watched as the colorful lights floated up above them, passing through the hole and lifting the humans and Digimon along with them.

Then in a flash of white, they found themselves once more face to face with their enemy. Something felt different, however. The room was brighter then before. Each light changed from a simple ball to the outline of a human and a different monster-like creature, forming an army of FDD’s! Each one acted as through they knew what they were supposed to do. They lifted their digivices upward, each with a Rookie Digimon by their side. Beams of light shot out from each digivice as Magickmon and Kitsunemon floated high above, catching them all. Their bodies glowed with the new energy and strength.

When the light disappeared, so did the audience of thousands of humans and Digimon. The two Megas and their friends were left to finish off the virus cloud.

"Now let’s try this again, shall we?" Kitsunemon smirked. "FURY OF THE STORM!"

"CELESTIAL FAITH!"

The virus shot lighting out in all directions. "Oh no, two Megas! I'm so scared!" he laughed sarcastically.

Augumon turned to Gabumon. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" asked the orange dinosaur.

"You bet I am!"

"AGUMON WARP DIGIVOLVE TO . . . WARGREYMON!"

"GABUMON WARP DIGIVOLVE TO . . . METALGARURUMON!"

WarGreymon flew up beside Magickmon. "We thought you two could use a hand!"

"Much obliged," Magickmon replied with a wink.

MetalGarurumon growled out his plan. "Kitsunemon, Magickmon, you take him from the left. WarGreymon and I will take him from the right. Got it?"

"Understood." Kitsunemon nodded.

The group below watched the four Megas take their positions.

"TERRA FORCE!"

"METAL WOLF CLAW!"

"CELESTIAL FAITH!"

"FURY OF THE STORM!"

Though the virus had no facial expression (or even a face for that matter), they could tell it was struggling. The bolts of lightning were becoming dim, and its thick dark body was becoming thin and transparent. The cloud absorbed the attacks once more, but four Mega attacks at once were too much to handle. "Impossible! This can't happen!" The virus’ red eyes glowed with intense fury.

Jenn smirked. "Oh, but it is. When are you bad guys ever going to figure it out? The good guys always win."

"Very well!" the virus boomed. "If I'm to be destroyed . . . then you will go with me!" With his last ounce of strength he expanded once more, the massive vapors exploding straight through the walls and ceiling, busting through them in a thunderous roar. As the entire castle began to crumble around them, the Digidestiend struggled to hang onto one another while making a hasty exit. It was so dark they could barely find the door.

Suddenly there a scream. "HELP!" Skye cried. She could feel something restraining her.

"Skye! I'm here! Grab onto me!" Jenn replied, following the girl's screams.

* * *

Outside the castle, the Digimon finished helping their human partners to safety. "Is everyone here?" Sora called out as she started a head count. Just at that moment, the castle collapsed behind them.

In all the excitement, the Digidestined couldn't help but wonder what happend to Devimon, LadyDevimon and DarkTyranomon, through one would assume that they were killed in the cave in along with the virus.

“Has anyone seen Jenn?” Foximon called out, looking around.

“I can’t see Skye!” Magickmon cried suddenly.

As they glanced at the giant pile of rubble, the group suddenly fell silent. "Oh God. . . ." someone murmured into the silence.

Izzy wiped dust from his shirt and coughed. "Wait! Let me see if I can track them. Our digivices are powered by our life energy. If their signal appears on my digivice, they could still be alive and we'll find them in no time." As Izzy began tracking them, Biyomon and Diratimon flew overhead, circling the area and searching for any signs of the two girls.

Izzy's hopeful and focused expression suddenly became one of disbelief. He pushed a few more buttons on his digivice, then turned to the others "I . . . I can't seem to find them."

"LINA!" Diratimon cried from the air.

"Did you find somthing?" she called back.

The dragon Digimon returned, carrying something shiny in his mouth. He dropped the item in Lina's hands. The others gathered to see what it was. Lina lowered her head as she handed it to Tai. "Skye's locket." Her voice trembled.

"Show us where you found this!" Tai ordered the winged dragon Digimon.

Diratimon nodded. He pointed Tai in the right direction, then flew ahead. The group followed Diratimon, climbing the mountain of rubble and starting to dig through dirt and crumbled stone. The four Megas raced to their aid, followed by the other Digimon. As Everyone dug, Biyomon was the one to notice something. "Over here!" The pink bird Digimon pointed to what looked to be a half covered, human hand.

Tai and Matt were the closest, and raced to dig around the hand as WarGreymon lifted a large rock out of the way. Soon they were able to identify the beaten and bruised forms of Jenn and Skye. The unconscious girls were dragged out of the pile by Matt and Tai, and carried back to the group. Gently the boys laid them on the grass.

"You found them!" Alex exclaimed optimistically, trying to deny the inevitable truth.

Foximon ran to her Digidestined. Magickmon de-digivolved back to Magimon and did the same. They watched in horror as Joe checked for vital signs . . . pulse . . . breath . . . all which failed to show. The boy shook his head sadly, saying nothing.

Foximon nuzzled Jenn's cheek, horrified to find her skin so cold and pale. "Jenn . . . you have to get up . . . please?!"

"Skye. . . ." Magimon's ears drooped. She didn't want to believe it. It wasn't possible! "She can't be. . . ."

Joe regretfully lowered his head. "I'm sorry. . . ."

"NO!" Foximon screamed. She fell to Jennifer's chest, crying a river of tears. "I should have protected her! I should have digivolved!"

Magimon was silent. She held Skye's hand, trying to find words to describe the pain she was feeling.

Tai griped Skye's locket to his chest. He was afraid to turn around and face the FDD Digidestined. He would be blamed for everything. Just like Jenn, just like any other leader, he was responsible for anything that happened to one of his fellow Digidestined. He was responsible for this tragedy.

All was silent; the only thing that could be heard was quiet sobs.

* * *

Jennifer opened her eyes to blinding white light. Something felt very different. She looked around to see a pure white landscape. She also felt lighter than usual. She looked down at her feet and saw that she was suspended in midair. "Oh no, not this place again!" she grumbled, rolling her eyes. "Wait, what's this?" She grabbed onto her clothes, but they weren't her clothes. It was a white robe that flowed just past her ankles. It was very comfortable.

Her next thought was to look around for the other Digidestined. "Hello? Is anyone else here!? Foximon? Lexxy? Tai? . . . .Anyone?" Her voice echoed.

"Jenn, is that you?" came a familiar voice finally.

"Skye?" Jenn floated toward the blue-haired girl, who was also wearing the same white robe. "Where are we?"

"We're floating and we're wearing white robes . . . that is the extent of my knowledge." Skye still had her usual sense of humor.

"Digidestined. . . ." A strange new voice whispered to them. Skye and Jenn's eyes snapped forward. A transparent figure was taking shape right in front of them.

"The Digi Princess?" Skye squinted her eyes.

"But Skye, you didn't pass out this time," Jenn pointed out in surprise.

"You sacrificed yourselves to save the digital world, and each other. You are spirits now, just as I am," the Digital Princess explained.

"What?" Jenn gulped. The last thing she remembered was hanging onto Skye, pulling her out of the virus's grasp and the castle that was crumbling over them. Then she remembered her friends. "What about the others? Did they make it?"

"Yes." The princess nodded simply.

"Please your majesty! Is there any way we can go back? Our friends need us. We'll do anything!" Skye pleaded.

"But it was never our destiny to die, was it?" Skye begged.

"Yes, we understand," Jenn nodded.

"What about our friends?" asked Skye. "Will they at least get home safely?"

"Are you sure there's no way we can bend the rules here?" Skye looked at the Digi Princess with hopeful blue eyes.

Jenn and Skye looked at each other, confused, "What do you . . . hey. . . ." The Digi Princes was gone. Jenn and Skye suddenly felt a warm feeling in their chests. They looked down, but their Crests were nowhere in sight. What they felt was a pulse, like a warm heartbeat. As they placed their hands on their chests, two familiar shapes suddenly appeared, glowing, as if it from inside them. They were the symbols of Loyalty and Faith.

* * *

Tai suddenly gasped, as the locket in his hands began to glow a bright blue. The locket floated out of his hand and high in the air, where it remained suspended. Foximon felt a warmth on her cheek as it rested on Jenn's chest. She opened her eyes to see that it was her partner's Crest. The symbol of Loyalty floated upward as it met beside the Locket. One by one, the rest of the Crests reacted, with their symbols rising into the air: Compassion, Melody, Kindness, Justice, Beauty, Protection, Commitment, Determination, Patients, Courage, Friendship, Love, Knowledge, Sincerity, Reliability, Hope and Light. All of them circled the locket, which now glowed brightly with the symbol of Faith. They rotated faster and faster until they suddenly melded together and exploded outward in a colorful aura. Then a ray of light beamed down, pulling the two girls up into the colorful lights, where they disappeared completely out of view.

Below, the children looked up at the sky, a mixture of fascination and confusion expressed on their wide-eyed faces. Then finally there was one last burst of light that made them shield their eyes from the intensity.

In only a few moments the light started to fade, and as the crest symbols were returned to their rightful owners, so were Jenn and Skye.

Jenn opened her eyes to a fuzzy orange blur. "Foximon?" she groaned weakly.

"Skye?" Magimon poked the blue-haired girl on the cheek, hoping that she would respond also.

"Yeah, I'm awake!"

The two girls sat up. They were confused by their friends’ shocked and worried expressions. Their memories were hazy and already fading away. "Why are you looking at us that way?" Jenn questioned. "Is everything okay?"

"It is now!" Foximon smiled, leaping into her partner’s arms, joyful tears streaming down her face.

"Magimon, what's wrong?" Skye asked Magimon, who clung to Skye's ribs. The feline Digimon was too caught up in her own emotions to reply. There would be time for explanations later.

Tai laughed nervously, also deciding that it would be best to spare the startling and dramatic details for now. "We defeated the virus!"

"And with the firewall gone as well, your mission here is finally complete," Izzy explained.

"We can go home?" Skye asked excitedly.

"In theory, correct," said the short redhead with a nod.