Author's Note: Well, here we are with the final chapter. Thank you to everybody who's been sticking around and reading this. I may not own Digimon, but I'm proud that I can say I am the author of a completed story. Enjoy the conclusion to story 1!

Joe was desperately hoping Izzy would give him the go-ahead soon. HerculesKabuterimon and Plesiomon had slowly been pushing their way forward towards the island to provide any backup that might be needed, but lately something seemed to be slowing HerculesKabuterimon down, forcing Plesiomon to fight off the increasingly dense swarm as they moved towards their destination. Even though his medical training hadn't prepared him to diagnose aquatic reptiles, he could tell his partner was dealing with extreme exhaustion and did not want to find out what would happen if he eventually collapsed while flying over the Dark Ocean in the middle of an opposing army. Luckily, before that had a chance to happen, Joe's D-Terminal received a message from Izzy claiming he was ready whenever Joe was. Looking around at the swarm of enemies, Joe decided that now would be the best time to use their secret weapon, and told Izzy to shut of HerculesKabuterimon's ability to feel vibrations right away. As soon as he got confirmation from Izzy, Joe immediately told Plesiomon to use his Sorrow Blue attack, and the sea dragon did just that, unleashing an unearthly wail that caused all the enemies in the surrounding area to either run away as they lost the will to fight, or plunge straight into the ocean as they lost all will to move. Joe glanced to HerculesKabuterimon to see if he was all right, only to find the insect apparently doubled over in pain. He was about to have Plesiomon fly over there to make sure he was all right when the insect suddenly put his claws to his mouth and made a terrible retching sound. He then took his hands away from his mouth to reveal a badly shaken Izzy sitting there covered in what Joe dearly hoped was only saliva. "Sorry about that, Izzy," the insect apologized, "but for some reason, you just gave me some terrible heartburn. Are you okay?"

Izzy managed to wipe off his face before responding. "I think so. Apparently, I forgot to take account the fact that we were in the Dark Ocean instead of the Digital World when I made that plan. Just like we become data whenever we enter the Digital World, you became much more organic when we entered this realm. You were still partly digital, so I could access your senses, but you also had a much more organic interior than Whamon did. The only things keeping me from passing out in panic at my first-hand view of the insect digestive system is the fact that I stayed above the midgut and thus only came into contact with saliva, which lacks the enzymes needed to dissolve me for nutrients. As long as I keep telling myself that, I should be able to prevent myself from going into shock."

"Well, that's good, because having you lodged in my throat isn't going so well for me." As he said that, he suddenly began glowing and shrunk back to Pabumon, causing himself and Izzy to begin falling from the sky. Plesiomon tried to fly in to save them, but after unleashing his Sorrow Blue attack, he had used up all of his energy and could no longer maintain his Mega form. He also began glowing and shrunk down to his baby form of Pichimon, and Joe found himself in the same state as Izzy as the fell towards the ocean below from a height Joe knew was too great to survive without injury. He hugged Pichimon towards him and closed his eyes, but instead of crashing into the water, he hit something that felt almost scaly well before he should have felt an impact. Opening his eyes, he saw that he and Izzy had landed on the back of a large green dragon that was currently flying out to sea. However, they weren't alone, as a monkey and a small rat were also calmly riding the dragon. Before he could ask what any of this meant, his attention was diverted by the appearance of a giant red phoenix flying above him. Izzy immediately realized who the phoenix was, and decided to fill Joe in.

"Relax, Joe, that's Zhuqiaomon, one of the Digimon Sovereign. He's on our side, though I'm not exactly sure what he's doing in the Dark Ocean of all places…"

"What, did you really think the four rulers of the Digital World would just stand by when somebody rips a giant tunnel open into the Dark Ocean after all of our attempts to enter? As soon as we became aware of the portal you had opened, the four of us gathered our personal bodyguards and went forth to wage war. However, we had not predicted the necessity of crossing an ocean, so much of our force had to stay behind. As it stands, we only managed to bring five of the twelve Deva with us, and Baihumon, Ebonwumon, and Sandiramon will have to swim instead of fly to the island. Azulongmon has gone on ahead, so now we must hurry towards the fight. I will not let darkness consume our land!"

"Not that I'm not thankful for saving us," Joe responded, "but why exactly did you do so? Forgive me for being blunt, but you haven't exactly gone out of your way to help us ever before, and you sound so focused on the upcoming battle that I'd have thought you'd just ignore us and go straight there."

"Watch your tone, human. Azulongmon may regard you DigiDestined highly, but not all Sovereigns share his view. However, the fact remains that I do owe you my freedom, and I loathe being indebted to anybody. When Azulongmon sent Majiramon after you to save you, I decided to come along and pay off my debt."

"How exactly did you find us, anyway?" Izzy asked. "We're in the middle of an ocean, and I couldn't even tell you where we are."

"Are you foolish enough to think we wouldn't notice a massive sonic wave? Upon your use of Plesiomon's Sorrow Blue attack, we were immediately alerted to your location. Such attacks may be effective on your enemy, but they have no chance of affecting me. Of course, on the off chance that Kumbhiramon, Majiramon, and Makuramon were not as resilient as I was, I took the precaution of using my Sonic Zephyr to slice the air to the point where the sonic wave was too distorted to have an effect. Now, we must go onward to the final battle!"

Tai was quickly coming to the conclusion that there was nothing more annoying than fighting an enemy who did absolutely nothing. Omnimon, Seraphimon, and Ophanimon were fighting to save the world, yet Ogudomon was simply sitting still on top of the gate, and no attacks they had used had managed to stop him. After he had shrugged off all of their ranged attacks, they had tried to engage at close quarters combat, but Seraphimon's Excalibur wasn't enough to cut off Ogudomon's legs, as the wound kept closing as soon as it was made. Seeing this, Omnimon decided to try the same technique that he had used to kill Diaboromon and had later been used by Imperialdramon to kill Armageddemon and stabbed Ogudomon straight through the face. However, despite the sword currently lodged in his head, Ogudomon still managed to laugh everything off while standing perfectly still. Tai knew there were only minutes at most left to stop the gate from opening, but he was starting to run out of ideas for things they could try to stop it.

Matt was likewise reaching his wit's end, but he still had one more solution that to him was at least worth a shot. "Okay, this is going to sound crazy, but we really don't have many options right now. Basically, Ogudomon is acting like a key to that door, and we want that door to stay locked. We've been trying to blow up the key, but what if we just fly it somewhere else? If we can separate him from the gate, he can't open it. He may be immune to any attacks of ours because of our sins or whatever, but that won't stop us from grabbing him and pulling him away."

Tai nodded. "Sure, but I've got an improvement to your plan. Instead of just flying him away, we fly him over a volcano and drop him in. I highly doubt he'd be immune to that, since a volcano can't really sin in the first place." Omnimon rolled his eyes at the simplicity of the plan, but realized he really didn't have the luxury of time to complain. He flew down underneath Ogudomon and tried flying away with the giant spider. Despite the simplicity of this strategy, it was the first time the DigiDestined had managed to force a reaction other than laughter, as Ogudomon was forced to dig his claws into the stone in an effort to avoid being carried away. However, Omnimon persisted in his efforts, and only ceased when Ogudomon shouted out "Catedral" and unleashed a shockwave from its giant mouth. Omnimon was blasted away, but the attack didn't seem to do any damage to Tai and Matt, let alone Omnimon. Seeing this, TK was suddenly struck by inspiration.

"Look, maybe we've been going about this the wrong way. Tai and Matt didn't take any damage from his attack, which seems odd considering he's a fusion of seven really powerful Megas. Maybe he's a lot weaker than we've been thinking. After all, if he's immune to every attack thrown at him, he doesn't need to worry about how strong he is. If we find a way around his immunity, we should be able to take him down in one hit! The problem is, we need to find a way to get around that first… maybe we should just try everything and hope something works?"

Kari became thoughtful. "Well, he's shown he isn't affected by any of our damaging attacks, but maybe we can get him with a non-damaging one. The problem is, Omnimon's only non-damaging move is a shield, and Ophanimon's moves either heal or purify their targets. Since she couldn't purify Omnimon fully, I doubt she could purify Ogudomon… but that doesn't mean it couldn't help! I've got it! Ophanimon, use Eden's Javelin on Seraphimon!"

Instantly catching on to her plan, TK addressed his partner. "Alright, Seraphimon, as soon as she hits you, hit Ogudomon with your strongest attack. It's about time we squashed this spider!" Seraphimon nodded and began planning his next move. "Okay, I know exactly what to do, but it's risky. Ophanimon should be fine after this attack, but TK and Kari will need to get behind Omnimon's Brave Shield Omega with Tai and Matt if they want to survive. And TK? This next attack will have a similar effect as what happened when I fought Devimon. I'll do my best to hold onto just enough energy to survive, but just in case I can't, I want you to promise you won't blame yourself. It is the only way to stop him, and I'd much rather die myself than see both of our worlds destroyed."

A dark look crossed TK's eyes, but Kari managed to convince Seraphimon TK would be fine before dragging him towards Omnimon for shelter. Along the way, Kari started talking to TK to convince herself that he would be fine as well. "Listen, TK, I realize this must be the worst possible thing for you. I wasn't there when Angemon sacrificed himself the first time, and I can't really imagine what it would be like to lose Gatomon like that, but you can't beat yourself up over this. I may not have experience with a partner dying, but I do know what it's like having a Digimon sacrifice himself so you can survive. I wish I could have saved Wizardmon's life, but he knew the only way to save me was to jump in front of that attack. If he hadn't died, I would have, but he was willing to completely sacrifice everything so his friend Gatomon could be happy. Now, Seraphimon's planning on doing the same thing for you. If you can't find it within you to be happy, wouldn't his sacrifice be for nothing? But I don't think you'll have to worry about that happening. He's a Mega now, and he should be better suited to controlling that kind of power than he was the first time he became a Champion."

"I guess you're right," TK sniffed, and Kari was surprised to see how quickly he had started crying. "Let's just get to Omnimon. I get that this has to happen, but it doesn't mean we can't get it over with quickly." Kari nodded, and began running the rest of the way to Omnimon. When they arrived, the received some questioning looks from their older brothers, but as soon as they explained the plan, Omnimon nodded and raised his Brave Shield Omega. As soon as the humans were behind the best shelter available at the time, Ophanimon began charging up her rainbow aura and fired a powerful blast of her Eden's Javelin attack directly at Seraphimon. As soon as the rainbow beam hit him, Seraphimon flew up right next to Ogudomon and began glowing with an intense white light. Before Ogudomon could react, Seraphimon called out "Rising Halo!", and a giant white orb suddenly exploded out of him, looking exactly like the effects of his suicidal Hand of Fate attack nine years ago.

Tai coughed as he slowly came around. Even with Omnimon and the Brave Shield Omega between him and the blast, Seraphimon's last attack had still managed to knock him out. Suddenly remembering that he had been operating on a time limit, he instantly snapped awake and looked around, praying he wouldn't see the incarnation of all darkness roaming free. However, a quick scan showed no such feature. Where Ogudomon had been standing before was nothing but empty space, and the only being left on the Gate of the Deadly Sins was a small white blob he recognized as Poyomon, Patamon's baby form. He was glad Seraphimon had managed to survive the attack, but that left him wondering about the state of everybody else. Glancing around, he saw Omnimon shakily getting back to his feet, while Matt, Kari, and TK were all slowly regaining consciousness. There was also a small white Digimon he didn't know the identity of a small ways away that he couldn't identify but assumed was Gatomon's baby form. However, the most disturbing feature of the scene was the seven other slowly stirring bodies: while Ogudomon had been blown apart, he had apparently only split back into the Seven Demon Lords instead of being destroyed outright. That meant, if he didn't act soon, they could easily get back onto the Gate and finish opening it unopposed.

"Listen, Omnimon, it might not be fair, but you have to blast them before they recover! Now's our only chance!" Omnimon, still a bit woozy from the effects of the blast, chuckled. "Didn't you yell at Infermon for attacking a Digivolving opponent? Still, I guess you're right." He shakily extended his Garuru Cannon and took aim at the nearest Demon Lord, the red crocodile known as Leviamon. Knowing his aim wasn't going to be the best and the time for subtlety had long since passed, he unleashed a furious barrage of the freezing blasts and only stopped when he saw Leviamon's body splinter into frozen pieces of data and a glowing blue circle that must have been his Code Key.

Moving to his next target, Omnimon began firing at the demonic biker Beelzemon and managed to reduce him to a yellow Code Key, but by the time he had finished attacking, the other Demon Lords had all returned to their feet. Luckily, they all seemed angry at Lucemon for his latest stunt, and looked to be more interested in attacking each other than Omnimon at the moment. The dog-like Belphemon was the first to fly towards Lucemon, and he used his Gift of Darkness attack to coat his claws in black flames in an attempt to destroy the other Demon Lord. However, Lucemon responded by throwing two glowing orbs: one black and one white. When the two orbs came in contact, Belphemon was suddenly trapped in a spinning orb of black and white squares. When the orb shattered, there was no trace of Belphemon except a glowing indigo Code Key, which Lucemon quickly absorbed.

Unfortunately, Lucemon and Belphemon's fight had distracted the DigiDestined, but not all of the Demon Lords. Barbamon used Omnimon's distraction as an opening to launch his Dark Inferno attack, engulfing the Royal Knight in black flames. He then flew in close and lashed out with his Greedy Wand attack, striking the burning Digimon and forcing him to split into two small Digimon Tai didn't know the names of. However, he recognized the small black Digimon as Agumon's baby form, which meant the small red Digimon must have been the same for Gabumon. Still, the fact that they had survived was little consolation, as this meant the only thing the DigiDestined had to defend themselves were four scattered and unconscious Baby level Digimon, and they were currently staring down one of four remaining Demon Lords.

The bearded Demon Lord laughed maniacally before addressing the four DigiDestined, who had finally all regained consciousness. "Perhaps you are wondering why I have allowed your partners to live despite me having the ability to absorb their data so easily. The answer is simple: I want to absorb the complete set all at once! Pandemonium Lo—"

However, before Barbamon could finish calling out his attack, he was struck dumb by the sudden appearance of a set of claws protruding from his chest. As Barbamon corroded into data and a purple Code Key, the DigiDestined were able to see the identity of their savior: Lilithmon. "Don't get the wrong idea about that. His attack would have fried me too, so the only way to save myself was… what are you laughing at?" Lilithmon wasn't quite sure how to handle the fact that the four DigiDestined were now laughing at her. Eventually, Kari managed to calm down enough to explain. "We just know better, Lilithmon. We've seen you actually start to care about us through this whole ordeal, so your denial is just so funny. Just because you're a Demon Lord doesn't mean you have to act all evil."

Before Lilithmon could react to Kari's revelation, she was suddenly punched into the ground by an angry Lucemon. As he absorbed Barbamon's Code Key, he started ranting to the other Demon Lord. "Did you really think you could get away with your stunt, Lilithmon? I allowed you your freedom before, but now I see I was too lenient! You're Code Key shall become the fifth in my collection, and you shall know the eternal pain of being locked away inside of me! Ultimate Sacri—"

"Aurora Force!" Before Lucemon had a chance to finish his attack, a blue bolt of lightning struck him in the chest and sent him flying backwards. Wondering who would dare have the nerve to attack him, Lucemon looked skyward to see the giant blue dragon that was Azulongmon, the Sovereign of the eastern quadrant. Before he could respond with an attack in kind, he was once again blasted, this time by two green energy beams courtesy of the Double Dragon Wave attack belonging to Ebonwumon, the twin-headed turtle who was the Sovereign of the northern quadrant. Before Lucemon even had time to recover, he was hit by a coiling spurt of flame from Zhuqiaomon, the phoenix who was the Sovereign of the southern quadrant and wielder of the Blazing Helix attack. Finally, Lucemon saw Baihumon, the white tiger who was the Sovereign of the western quadrant charge in with his Iron Claws attack. However, this time Lucemon had time to react, and he managed to strike the Sovereign with his Paradise Lost Punch, sending him flying into the air. As he regained his footing, Lucemon noticed the four Sovereign had brought along five Deva as well as all of the DigiDestined, though the later were all clutching Baby stage Digimon. However, he was still outnumbered, so Lucemon knew he had to take drastic measures.

"Well, this sure brings back memories. The four Sovereign, once again trying to defeat me. Tell me, how is Fanglongmon doing? Is he enjoying that little prison I trapped him in for daring to defy me? Still, I'm afraid I really can't afford to stick around and reminisce. After all, I only have five Code Keys, and I really must collect all seven. I'm afraid we'll just have to talk some other time." With that parting remark, Lucemon materialized another pair of light and dark orbs, but this time crashed them together in his own hands, causing himself to disappear. With Lucemon gone, the Sovereigns turned their fury toward the only other Demon Lord in the area, forcing Tai to intervene.

"Hey, stop! Lilithmon's on our side now. She killed Barbamon and saved all of our lives. Besides, killing her would just make it easier for Lucemon to pick up her Code Key later. I don't think he's gone for good, no matter what it looks like. Anyway, he said he already had five Code Keys, and if he gets all seven he'll be able to open the gate on his own- wait a minute, if Lilithmon's the sixth Code Key, where is the seventh?"

"That would be Daemon," Lilithmon answered. "He'd been working on some backup plan to implement if Lucemon ever betrayed him, and he must have slipped away as soon as he recovered from Seraphimon's attack. Before you ask, I don't know what his plan was- we all had such plans, but we kept it secret from the others in case they would use it against us. As for Lucemon, he is very much alive somewhere, no doubt licking his wounds and working on subjugating the other four Code Keys to increase his power. As long as he is free, no place in the Digital World or the Dark Ocean is safe."

Zhuqiaomon snorted. "Do you think your vague threats are enough to save your life? If what you say is true, the danger is the same whether you live or die. You shall not be pardoned for your involvement!"

However, before Zhuqiaomon could back up his threat, all eight DigiDestined suddenly came together to form a wall between him and Lilithmon. While eight humans and eight baby Digimon posed no threat to the Sovereign, the determined looks on all of their faces were enough to give him pause. Joe used the opening to start lecturing the phoenix. "So, this is how you handle your debts? As I recall, you hate being indebted to anybody, so you do your best to pay them off. When you helped saved me and Izzy, I guess you paid off one debt, but didn't the DigiDestined free you twice, not once? You owe us, and you can pay that debt by sparing Lilithmon."

Ebonwumon smirked at how expertly Joe had backed Zhuqiaomon into a corner. The bird huffed before conceding defeat. "Very well, I shall make that payment. However, you are now directly responsible for this Demon Lord. Should she do anything to harm the safety of the Digital World, you shall share responsibility for the act." All the DigiDestined nodded their agreement, and the Sovereign began departing. Lilithmon turned to the eight kids who had just saved her from divine punishment, and for the first time she could remember found herself completely lost for words. Luckily, Tai started talking right away for her.

"Listen, you don't have to thank us. You saved our lives, so of course we'd save yours. Besides, even though we got off on the wrong foot, you started helping us from the start with information, and I could tell you were rooting for us to win even before Ophanimon freed us. You really aren't that bad deep down."

"It's probably because she used to be one of the Celestial Digimon in charge of maintaining the peace of the Digital World," Izzy added. Lilithmon gasped in shock, but Izzy just kept on going. "You are the one who told me to go see Minervamon, so why are you surprised I know that? She also told me something that might interest you: the six humans who wielded the Spirits of the Legendary Warriors are still alive in our world. In fact, only six years have passed for them since they were called in to the Digital World. I'm sure they'd like to meet you again if we could track them down."

"You'd really do all of that for me?"

"Of course we would," Tai answered. "Besides, getting you to Earth might be the best thing we could do. With Lucemon running around loose here and able to access the Digital World, it's probably the safest place you could be. It might even help me solve one of my own problems. I've been trying to get the Digital World recognized as a legitimate political entity, but I've been hitting some major roadblocks. However, if you could somehow get recognized as a refugee from the Digital World, they'd have to acknowledge the Digital World itself! I'm not quite sure of the particulars of how it would work, but I could always ask my friend Rei. She's been extensively studying the system for political asylum for her thesis, so she should know how to help."

"Sounds great," Matt interrupted, "but that can all wait a bit. Right now, we all deserve some rest and some decent food." Suddenly, he smirked at Tai. "Then again, there is one important issue we need to take care of right away."

Understanding the message, Tai suddenly smirked back. "That's right, I almost forgot about that. I did say the time for thinking about it was after saving the world, and I think we just came close enough to saving the world for it to count…"

The two older DigiDestined suddenly turned towards their younger siblings. "So, when were you two planning on telling us you were dating?"

Author's Note: So, that's it. We made it all the way through to the end! Never expected I'd get this far when I first got the idea to start writing. Now, I'm not sure when exactly I'll get the second story of the trilogy posted- I have a plot all written out, but something I learned from writing this story is a plot constantly evolves as you write it. That's why things like Dragomon appeared at the beginning but were then cut out, and the Sovereigns appear out of nowhere at the end as their earlier involvement was also edited away. Still, I know some things I won't be changing, and I think I've left enough hints for some people to know what's coming next. After all, things like the Digimon video game, Ken's Crest, and the name of Tai's friend wouldn't have been included unless they would come up again later, would they? I hope you will stick around for that, and I promise to start writing soon so I don't keep you waiting too long. It's been a blast,

Mathemagician