On-screen!
The battle was over.
When that terrifying energy finally dispersed… when VenomMyotismon's presence faded to nothing… when sunlight returned to the ground—
Everyone thought it was finished.
"We won!"
"We did it!"
The kids cheered—alive, relieved.
Agumon and Gabumon, exhausted, dropped back to Rookie and threw themselves into their partners' arms.
But—
Just as everyone began to breathe out—
Something changed.
The sky.
The sky that had just cleared suddenly twisted—
as if an invisible hand grabbed the heavens like a canvas and wrung them hard.
Across the blue vault appeared a bizarre upside-down land.
Its silhouette…
"Infinity Mountain!" Tai blurted, pupils pinning tight.
Yes.
That stark, steep outline was the place their Digital World adventure began—and ended: Infinity Mountain.
The entire Digital World was hanging above the Real World… upside down.
Vrrrrrr—
Engines whined.
A human military recon plane edged toward the inverted landmass, probing the anomaly.
"Don't! Stay back!" Izzy shouted.
Too late.
The wingtip merely skimmed the rim of the inverted continent—
Crack!
A frost you could see raced outward from the contact point.
A tough alloy wing, brittle as a cracker before that occult frost—
Frozen.
Then snapped.
The aircraft rolled, belching smoke, pinwheeling toward the ground.
"Ahhhh!" the pilots' despair tore from the cabin.
"Biyomon!" Sora cried.
"Leave it to me!"
Biyomon surged skyward—
"Biyomon, Digivolve to—"
Flame wrapped her in midair, tracing a blazing arc—
"Birdramon!"
The fire blew off, and a giant bird with golden arm-guards and helm burst out of the smoke.
With a piercing cry, Birdramon's talons clamped the spinning plane, steadied it, and set it safely down.
Crisis averted—for the moment.
But everyone's hearts sank.
Izzy had his laptop open, fingers hammering keys.
Data torrents waterfall-scrolled down the screen.
His Digivice, linked to the laptop, kept beeping alarms.
"This… can't be…" His face went pale, sweat beading his brow.
"Izzy, what do you see?" Tai pressed.
Izzy lifted his head, eyes full of shock.
"Time… isn't flowing the same!"
"While a few days passed for us here, in the Digital World… years have gone by!"
"What?!" The breath left every child's chest.
Years?
What had happened in the Digital World while they were gone?
"And more," Izzy's voice shook.
"The Digital World is wildly unstable. Some powerful darkness is warping the world's laws."
"The boundary between the two worlds is blurring—merging. If we do nothing, soon they'll collide and fuse. When that happens…"
When that happens—everything ends.
Izzy didn't finish.
He didn't need to.
Everyone understood the terror in the rest of that sentence.
[Cyber Sleuth World]
"Hey hey hey, this is a joke, right?" Nokia stared at the screen, dropping her Digimon plush to the floor. "World fusion? Different timeflow?"
"That's even crazier than EDEN Syndrome!"
Arata pushed up his glasses, eyes dark behind the lenses. "No—theoretically possible."
"If the Digital World is one server and the Real World is another, and someone overwrites the base protocols and forces overspec data exchange, you'd get 'time-zone desync' bugs like this."
"But whoever can do that—is no ordinary hacker."
He glanced at the always-composed Kyoko.
Kyoko sipped her special blend, then frowned. "This coffee… suddenly tastes off."
She set down the cup, gaze razor-keen on the screen.
"The rules of the world have changed."
"It seems that Digital World has birthed something… formidable."
[Digimon Tamers World]
"Takato, this is bad," Guilmon whispered from behind him. "That world looks scarier than ours."
Takato clenched his Card Slash reader, palm slick. "Yeah…"
He saw the resolve in Tai's eyes on the screen and felt a shock in his own heart. Same schoolkids, same partner Digimon—
but they were carrying two worlds on their backs.
Rika folded her arms, voice cold. "Hmph. Naïve bunch."
"World fusion isn't simple. The paradoxes and conflicts alone are enough to grind everything into chaos."
Renamon glanced over. "You mean…"
"Exactly." Rika's gaze cut like a blade. "They'll be fighting not just darkness—
but the warped laws of the world itself."
Henry sighed, pushing up his glasses. "She's right. This is beyond 'beat the bad guy.' It's a war with the world itself."
The quiet legend, Ryo, finally spoke. "They still have to go."
Eyes turned to him.
Ryo's look reached through the screen to the eight kids.
"They're the Chosen Children. It's their fate—and their honor."
[Digimon Adventure 02 World]
"Whoaaa! It's Tai and the others! So cool!" Davis windmilled in place. "Veemon! That's the legendary DigiDestined!"
"Mm! I'll be the strongest partner just like Agumon!" Veemon nodded hard.
Ken's face was more complicated. Staring at the darkness warping that world, he saw his past. "A power that twists a world… Is it like my Dark Seed?"
Wormmon peered up, worried. "Ken…"
"I'm fine," Ken said, eyes firming. "I'm just thinking… could I do what they're doing?"
In the corner, BlackWarGreymon folded his arms, aloof. "Pointless. What's the use of fighting to protect a fragile world? Finding the meaning of one's existence is what matters."
Beside him, Azulongmon's vast eyes opened. His voice tolled like a bell.
"To protect is a meaning. If the world is gone, what meaning remains?"
BlackWarGreymon fell silent.
[Xros Wars / Mikey Kudo]
"So those are other DigiDestined…" Mikey studied the screen. "Their battles are nothing like DigiXros. One-to-one partners, evolving to grow stronger…"
Shoutmon, though, was dazzled by WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon. "So cool, Mikey! I wanna evolve like that! That WarGreymon's got serious guts!"
Angie and Jeremy fretted. "But they're leaving again… Their parents must be so worried."
Mikey nodded, glancing at the kids' families. "Yeah. But having people you want to protect is why power awakens. That's true in any world." He tightened his grip on the Xros Loader. "I… won't lose to them."
[Digimon tri World]
"So it's come to this," the older Tai said, face heavy. Beside him, WarGreymon stood silent, the weight in the room enough to speak.
Jesmon's voice was chill. "WorldTree's trickery again? Or something worse?"
Alphamon's eyes cut through time. "Order collapsing. Constancy failing. This timeline walks into the unknown."
"Gennai," he said to the grinning man, "is this what you wanted?"
Gennai shrugged, smile unsettling. "Don't look at me. The world's choices are always full of surprises."
[Back on-screen]
Over Odaiba's ruins, the air was death-still.
Izzy's revelation had stolen every word.
Years lost.
A warped world.
Collision—and annihilation—on the horizon.
It was a mountain on the shoulders of kids barely ten.
"We have to go back."
Tai broke the silence. He gripped his Digivice; the orange shell seemed to warm to his resolve. His eyes held no hesitation—only fire.
"Tai's right!" Matt stepped forward, just as firm. "That's our partners' home. We won't stand by and watch it be destroyed."
"And," Izzy added, pushing up his glasses, "if we do nothing, the Real World gets dragged in. Earth is at risk."
"So leave it to us!" Even cautious Joe straightened and raised his voice, doubt gone from his eyes.
Heads nodded around the circle.
"Right!"
"We'll go!"
"To protect both worlds!"
Footfalls pounded closer.
"Tai!"
"Matt!"
"Kids!"
Their parents—finally through the chaos—found them.
Seeing them safe, relief came first.
Then they heard the declaration.
Tai's mother rushed in and clutched him. "Go back? Go where? You just came home!" Tears rimmed her voice. "It's too dangerous! I won't allow it!"
They didn't understand the Digital World. They only knew their children meant to walk into danger.
"Mom," Tai said softly, easing free, eyes clear and steady.
"We're not going to play. We're going to fight—to protect what matters, just like we did before."
He looked to all the parents. "Please believe in us. We'll protect both worlds."
Matt's mother, the well-known TV host, set aside her poise. She stood before her always-stoic son. No hug—just a firm clap on his shoulder.
"Do what you have to do." Her voice was husky, but her eyes were full of understanding—and pride. "I'll be waiting."
Silence.
Parents looked at their children—faces still young, but with unshakable resolve.
They understood.
Their kids were no longer fledglings needing shelter. They were eagles—wings ready to ride the sky.
"Kari's going too."
A clear voice rang out.
All eyes turned to the small figure taking Gatomon—now Salamon—by the paw.
Kari's face held no fear. "I'm a DigiDestined too. And Salamon is everyone's partner."
Salamon nodded hard at her feet.
Tai smiled, warm. "Yeah. We go together."
Eight children.
Eight Digimon.
All present.
They stood shoulder-to-shoulder. Under everyone's gaze, they raised their Digivices high.
Eight streams of differently colored data speared into the sky—
weaving beneath the upside-down Infinity Mountain.
Vmmm—
Space shuddered.
A vast rainbow data gate unfolded before them.
On the other side… the breath of the Digital World.
"We'll come back!"
They turned, waving to their parents with the brightest smiles.
Then—
Without hesitation, they stepped into the shining doorway to an unknown fate—one pair at a time:
Tai & Agumon.
Matt & Gabumon.
Sora & Biyomon.
Izzy & Tentomon.
Mimi & Palmon.
Joe & Gomamon.
T.K. & Patamon.
And last—Kari & Salamon.
Eight silhouettes vanished into the torrent of light and data—
leaving behind parents' endless concern… and a ravaged land, once more holding hope.
(End of Chapter)
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