Ye gods, these muses! Effing rabid dragons #$^# ...

I thought I'd combine a couple of different prompts, but then a certain muse went 'why would I possibly want to do what he did in the anime when I could do what I did in the anime instead?'

This picks up after the third Wonderswan game, when Millenniummon's base blew up with Ryo and Veemon inside it while Chosen Children from all over the world watched and knew that this was the outcome of the Sovereign's plan, a plan that involved all of them being manipulated and lied to.

The D-1 tournament, from a Watsonian perspective, established that the Adventure Harmonious Ones/Four Holy Beasts/Sovereign (used in Tamers) see the Chosen Children as either enemies or servants, not allies worth of respect.

People have fridged the tournament being a mass of lies with 'the Four Holy Beasts/Sovereign mistrusted Ryo because they knew he was Millenniummon's partner,' but Ryo was not the only person lied to, traumatized, etc. in that debacle.

You do not pull that kind of shit on your allies in wartime, and beings who are thousands of years old would damn well know it. That kind of misinformation is begging for massive friendly fire casualties, not to mention how they will react when they find out…

And Taichi is willing to trust a single word that comes out of Azulongmon's mouth in 02? Since the fourth game isn't part of this continuity, the cast's amnesia about Millenniummon and the tournament needs a justification other than Timey Wimey Ball, and there's in-universe methods of causing targeted amnesia.

I'm not a fan of Ron The Death Eater, but Hanlon's Razor is 'never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity/ignorance,' and the Four Holy Beasts really do have to know better than this. So either malice or they are just so damn stupid that they are not competent to be given a job as important as keeping the Digital World running, which is… given Adventure and 02, accurate.

We see what happens to the Digital World when Mugendramon & Millenniummon are ruling it: the Four Holy Beasts are absolutely the lesser of two evils, but the lesser of two evils is still an evil. Mistreat the allies who came to your aid in time of war, and they'll remember it when the war's over. If you can make them forget, in theory that's not a problem, but if you try, fail and they find out about it once the bigger threat's gone...

Edit: Switching everything over to sub terms. Pardon my dust.

"They're not what I thought they were." Looking down, for a moment Gennai looked old. Not the way he had when his body really was old, because the thing Piemon stuck into him damaged his data. No, back then he'd tried his hardest to be some kind of cheerful.

Now his gods had returned, his youth was restored, and here he was in his cottage under the lake with his best friend and one of the Chosen Children who had stayed with him for months.

The other one wasn't here anymore.

"The Digital World needs its gods," Gennai said. "It's still severely damaged. But I can't be glad anymore that the Four Holy Beasts have returned. The Order tried for millennia to unseal them. The last they were able to contact us was centuries before I was made. All we had were stories of a time when the Digital World was safer. When we were protected, when no one would dare wipe out our Temples one by one…" Until Gennai's was the only one left. "Do you know what they told me? They told me that there was no other way. Right after they told me that I was right, and Ryo's Crest was Miracles. There should have been another way. He could have made it possible. He fought for all of us, he came to fight for them, and not only treating Ryo like that, but lying to all of the Chosen Children?"

An adult wouldn't talk about things like this with a kid like Ken, but Gennai had never been a child, and even though he understood that the Chosen Children were like In-trainings and Child Digimon, coddling them had never occurred to him.

"But I was right," Ken said, sitting on the wood floor next to the wall with the fish swimming by on the other side of it. "Ryo is still alive. Thank you for telling me, Gennai."

"He's not necessarily alive," his now-young old friend cautioned him. "It was impossible for anyone to survive an explosion like that, but since they confirmed he has the Crest of Miracles, it would have been possible for him. Possible."

"You said he 'has' the Crest of Miracles." Ken grinned, hugging Wormmon in his lap. "So I'm not the only one who knows he's alive anymore! I know that Ryo will come back to us if there's any way he can, so if it's not impossible for him he definitely will."

"I pray-" Gennai closed his eyes. "I hope you're right." He sighed. "They're going to make more of us. I'll have brothers again. More of the weakest beings in the Digital World, when things are still unsettled like this, even with Millenniummon gone. They'll need training, and Piccolomon and I are the only ones who can teach them how to use barriers and the other things they'll need to know to survive and help the Chosen. I wanted to protest their decisions, but I couldn't."

"You have to protect your little brothers," Ken agreed, nodding.

"I know all about remaining quiet to survive," Gennai said, "but that was to survive the Dark Masters. I should be able to trust in the gods. I should have faith that they had a reason, or I should at least trust them enough to ask what it was." That they would answer his questions instead of rejecting him for heresy. Keep him from contaminating the new clones. "I fear that telling you that your friend may still be alive is all I can do, for any of you. After all that the Chosen Children have done for the Digital World." When he helped call them there. "Instead of asking Taichi's forgiveness, I ask it of the Child of Kindness." So it was cold comfort, when Ken might be saying he hadn't done anything wrong because he forgave him, not because he thought that Gennai was genuinely doing the best he could.

"Millenniummon was a god," Ken said, looking down at Wormmon. "I don't think that being a god makes someone a good guy. There are lots of stories in books about gods doing really evil things, and everyone having to worship them anyway because otherwise the gods would punish them for hubris. Or because they needed the gods to keep making the crops grow and the world work properly, like the Digital World needs the Four Holy Beasts. The Four Holy Beasts lied to everyone and sent Ryo and V-mon to die. I don't think they're very good gods either." He frowned, glaring for a moment. "If Ryo comes back and forgives them, then I will, but until that happens I won't forgive them. They made Ryo watch Digimon die for some stupid game and now he's gone. You're my friend too, and now they're making you sad and afraid for everyone. I can't forgive people who are cruel like that."

"…You cannot forgive them?" There was sadness in Gennai's eyes, but almost a bit of hope. Like he needed someone to give him permission to feel used.

"Well, they haven't said they're sorry," Ken pointed out. "Did they?"

"They said it was necessary, to bring peace to the Digital World."

"That's not the same as sorry," Piccolomon said. "Out with the old, in with the new. Four Ultimates throwing their weight around, not caring who gets hurt: the Four Holy Beasts are an improvement over the Dark Masters, but the strong have a duty to the weak."

Ken nodded. "I want to help Wormmon, but sometimes I'm glad that my crest doesn't help me and Wormmon be strong. I don't want Wormmon to have to fight," he hugged him. "And my partner has to protect me. If other Digimon are helping me, then they're helping me because they think it's the right thing to do."

Gennai nodded. "Ken," he said, standing up, "I want you to have this."

"Oh, what is it?" Wormmon hopped down off Ken's lap so he could stand up to take it from Gennai. "Is this a crest?"

"It's yours," Gennai told him. "The crests channel and store the power of the Chosen, and they also use some of that power to protect their bearers. The Four Holy Beasts … They did not appreciate Taichi's outburst. Within the Digital World, all beings are data, and the gods have the power to alter that data. Your crest will protect you, and Wormmon."

Ken paled, looking horrified. "You really think they'd do something to, to Taichi?" The hero Ken cheered on when he fought Diablomon, the hero Ken had to try to step in for when Millenniummon froze him? Gennai had seen Taichi thanking Ken, telling him that he couldn't have done it better himself. "Controlling people is what evil Digimon do!"

"That was what I believed," said Gennai, and Ken instantly hugged the artificial human. He looked up to see Piccolomon's hand on Gennai's shoulder. "My code is an open book to Azulongmon. I couldn't let them think I agreed with Taichi." When before it was his duty to support the Chosen Children, his 'old' masters were asking him to betray the only ones he had known. "If they decide to wipe some of my knowledge, that will be knowledge and experience won at great cost."

"If there are little kid artificial humans, they'll need you and Piccolomon," Ken agreed. "It's okay! I'll remember, and wait for Ryo. He's beaten an evil god four times now, he can definitely beat four evil gods! You'll see, he'll show up with some Digimon and say 'Hey!' like he was never gone. I wasn't invited to the Tournament, so the Four Holy Beasts probably think me and Wormmon are too weak to bother about. I'll show them what happens to people who underestimate Wormmon and me just because we're small!"

"Yay!" Wormmon said happily. "I know you can do it, Ken!"

Gennai chuckled, patting him on the head. "You're too kind. They're prioritizing restoring the dimensional barrier, instead of healing the world," Gennai said, solemn again. "My guess is that they want to seal the Digital World off from Earth while they regain their power, so they don't have to deal with the Chosen, or any other humans who could potentially gather an army of Digimon and challenge them. I wanted you and Wormmon to at least have a chance to say goodbye before you were separated."

"I won't be able to see Ken?" Wormmon trembled.

"He can come with me!" Ken said. "He'll hide in my room, and my parents don't pay attention to me so they won't notice I'm eating more!" He frowned. "But what about everyone else's partners?"

"You never had a crest," Gennai told him. "The power comes from the Chosen, not the crest, but it's possible they might learn how to channel their power without a crest, with training. Separating them from their Digimon will atrophy the bond. I would warn Tailmon – she could figure out how to slip them away if anyone could – but Azulongmon asked about Tailmon specifically. He was more concerned about her than Agumon and Gabumon, and they can become Omegamon. Her absence would be noticed."

"But I'm just one more Wormmon, no one notices us. They'll think I'm in some colony with all the other insects, so I can be with Ken!" Wormmon clapped his front feet together.

Ken smiled. "Nobody notices Wormmon, not when we've got Ultimates helping us, but that means they don't notice Wormmon's healing the Ultimates so they can't win! That's what Ryo said when Wormmon told him what Millenniummon said, and he's right: Millenniummon didn't take us seriously, and that was why we could help beat him when even Taichi couldn't! Don't worry, Gennai. We'll be okay until Ryo gets back and we can help you."

"You're very nice, so I'm glad there will be more Gennai," Wormmon said.

"What about Koushiro? Isn't he the Child of Knowledge?"

"The Four Holy Beasts are very old and very wise," Gennai said. Something he'd been taught that wasn't entirely a good thing. Not anymore. "They weren't concerned about him, not the way they were about the Child of Light and Tailmon."

"Well that proves it," Ken said. "Good guys wouldn't be scared of the Child of Light, right?" He let himself look a little worried for a moment, glancing at Wormmon. "You're not telling us about this so we'll help, are you?" His shoulders slumped. "You want us to not try to help you, except by staying safe."

"You're very loyal to your partner and your friends," Gennai told him. "Taichi has powerful bonds even they would hesitate to tamper with. Not when they can't spare the power. You and Wormmon… If they think about the fact that you trained an army, just like Ryo did…"

"Then we won't be underestimated anymore." Ken nodded. "Don't worry, I know almost as much about not being noticed as Wormmon, and I'll have him with me so we can practice together."

"Keep your head down," Gennai said, tapping him on the top of the head. "Wait for Ryo."

"I will," Ken said, crossing his fingers behind his back where Wormmon and Piccolomon could see.

He saw Piccolomon's smile out of the corner of his eye.

"Should you be up this late?" he typed, sitting in front of Osamu's computer.

"It's fine," Wallace typed back. "You and Koushiro were there for me when Chocomon needed help. I paid Koushiro back in advance," helping during the battle with Diablomon, some highly illegal assistance, "but I still owe you. I can't really ever repay you, either of you, but I still want to do something."

Ken smiled. "I guess I can't talk when I should be at school."

"You aren't going to get in trouble, are you? I can finish this solo."

"No, that's what's great about my parents not paying attention to me. As long as I keep my exam scores up so Osamu doesn't get mad and stop running interference for me, I could probably get away with murder."

Another message: "Can't miss soccer practice, though."

The first response was a laugh, the second "Chocomon... Chocomon and Terriermon are threatening to bounce on the keyboard if I don't say Hi to Wormmon for them."

"Hey, Wormmon?" Ken nudged his partner, who was holding up a cookbook almost big enough for him to hide behind.

"Oh? What is it, Ken?" Wormmon asked, lowering the book to look up at him from next to Ken's screen.

"Chocomon and Terriermon say hi."

Wormmon smiled, so happy to be remembered. "Hello! Is Chocomon still okay?"

"Wormmon says Hello back, and wants to know if Chocomon is still doing ok."

"Judging from his appetite, he's never been better. I think he'll be able to stay Lopmon most of the time again soon."

"That's a relief." Ken smiled. "He's almost back to child stage, Wormmon."

"That's wonderful!"

"That's wonderful!" Ken typed, then paused. "Actually… my brother's got an interview again. It'd be nice to be there when he gets out of it, and we could get Wormmon some ice cream on the way back."

"Ugh, your parents… If mine were like them, Chocomon and Terriermon would probably be sideshow attractions by now."

"I know, what if the Digivice was Osamu's? Genius and destined hero like you and Koushiro? You guys have great parents, but Osamu would never get a break!" Ken rolled his eyes. "Not unless he ran away to the Digital World!"

"Hey, you know that if you need a place you can run away to… I can whip you up all the ID you want, and this entire state has fewer people in it than most cities! There's plenty of space for even Cherubimon to run around!"

"I don't know if I should tell Osamu you offered, Wallace, he may take you up on it. Aaaand… Complied!" Ken grinned as the ding sounded. He'd set it to the same as the oven going off, since Wormmon liked cooking.

"Send it over to me so I can go over it, and get going!" Wallace told him.

"I'll need a minute to upload it, even with your fancy military satellite connection. Not all of us get top of the line every three months, you know." Ken added a symbol so Wallace knew he was joking.

"I know, I know, lazy to not build my own systems anymore, but it's recycling!"

When that was done, Ken scooped Wormmon up in his arms. "How do you feel about ice cream?"

"Ice cream?"

He really did love Wormmon's smile. The Digimon loved Ken so much, and when love was power, it really took a fool to underestimate them, didn't it?

Ken smiled back. "We're going to go surprise Osamu."

"Oh, that's good," Wormmon said. "He used to look so tired all the time, but now he's much less cranky."

Ken shook his head. "They weren't even giving him time to sleep…" When what they valued was the attention his brain got them, and how was he supposed to think when he couldn't sleep?

When he got to the top of the station, he waved. "Oh, hello, Mr. Ishida! But if you're here with Wizardmon, who's interviewing Osamu?"

"I'm out early," Osamu said, leaning out from behind the Digimon's ghost.

Ken and Wormmon both perked up. "Really!"

Osamu nodded. "Really. Mr. Ishida is a miracle worker."

"It's not really that much," he said, embarrassed. "If it was my son… They are doing what they think is best for you. They're right that your future is set as long as you keep this up, but if they push you too hard, then you won't be able to keep it up. All I did was give them some of the scoop from an expose we're going to do on Idol burnout and introduce them to the reporter who's doing the study."

"Doctors recommend nine hours of sleep at my age for optimal brain function," Osamu said longingly. "Nine hours."

"It gets a little hard to be a genius in a live interview when you're too tired to think. I just wish there was more I could do," Yamato's dad said, looking embarrassed. "Sorry about that."

"About trying to make me give wrong answers? It was a practice interview, and they're actually listening," Osamu said. "Thank you so much, Mr. Ishida."

Huh. He hadn't even heard himself scream. Weren't your last moments supposed to be long enough to replay your entire life? He hadn't even had time to notice the sound forced out of him.

Or maybe this was the 'before death,' his mind trying to rewind, find a way out of this where he didn't die, but it was too late. The car had already hit him.

It wasn't until the scream stopped drowning everything else out that he could hear the squeal of the tires, Ken's voice shouting his name, still backwards like everything else.

Then the car was no longer touching him and he heard, "Osamu!"

He flinched, because if time had started moving forward again, the car was about to hit him again, he'd feel it all over again!

"Osamu, run! I can't hold this forever!" his brother begged him, and he looked up to see Ken holding out his Digivice, desperation on his face.

Osamu ran for the curb.

The sound of cars resumed. His brother toppled over into his arms.

He awoke lying in bed, with a cold cloth on his head. He could hear someone wringing out water right next to him. "Wormmon?" he murmured, sounding too weak to speak.

"Are you alright, Ken?" Wormmon asked him.

Ken nodded carefully.

"Oh thank goodness, your brother said he'd call the hospital if you didn't wake up soon, and I couldn't be there to take care of you."

"My brother." Right. "Is Osamu okay?"

"He's fine. I'll go get him."

Ken heard Wormmon jump off the side of the bed and scurry away on his little legs. It made him smile.

Osamu came running. "You really saved me, Ken," he said first thing, so his little brother could breathe out a sigh of relief.

"If the bad guy… got to do it…" He closed his eyes. "Not fair otherwise… Can you tell Wallace…"

"Is that what you've been working on with Wallace?" Osamu asked, and Ken could hear that his brother was glaring down at him. "If a few seconds did this to you, there's no way I'm letting you…" He sighed with relief when Ken shook his head.

"I could figure that out too. Even with the power in the Crest, there's no way to go all the way back to when Ryo went to fight him. The same thing works with dimensions, though, or that's what we're trying to do, and now I don't think I can power the experiments we were going to do so everyone else could get back to the Digital World and see their friends again. I hope they don't have to wait for the crest to glow again."

"…I don't think we're in Wyoming anymore, Terriermon," Wallace said, looking out at the night-covered sea, the lighthouse in the distance. He was perched on Cherubimon's shoulder, with Terriermon perched on his shoulder as he floated in the air around the sand.

Koushiro had already set up his laptop and all the equipment in one of Cherubimon's hands. "I think I heard about something like this. I could get better readings if-"

"I'm not lowering the shield bubble," Cherubimon said flatly. "This place… it smells like the darkness that infected me."

"Right." Terriermon nodded.

"Well, if that's true we did get to another dimension, and not a random one but one connected to Cherubimon!" Ken said to cheer them up. "We can definitely get to the Digital World next time."

Terriermon shrugged. "We've never been to the Digital World. All I know about it is that it didn't have Wallace in it, but if Wallace was stuck in another dimension…"

"You reunited me with Wallace," Cherubimon said. "We'll find Tentomon, never fear."

"Thank you," Koushiro said quietly, then, determinedly, "Prodigious! This dimension is also in contact with the Digital World, not just our world! I think we can get enough data to triangulate!"

"Did Gennai give you all of this?" Koushiro asked, still scrolling through the pages. "I haven't been able to get in contact with him."

"You can't tell anyone," Ken said, alarmed. "That way… that way Gennai is safe. I hope. He's safer if you give up trying to contact him. I'm only showing you something that came from him so you'd believe me."

The Child of Knowledge looked up at him, worried. "Gennai's in danger?"

"You don't remember," Ken said, clutching his partner tight. "No one remembers except me and Wormmon. Um… Do you guys remember fighting Apocalymon?" he asked.

"It would be hard to forget that… Under normal circumstances." Koushiro frowned at him. "I'm aware there are methods of inducing amnesia in the Digital World."

"Remember Diablomon?"

"Yes."

"Do you remember where Diablomon came from?"

"I assumed he was a virus, but a virus that could Digivolve… how did he get from the Digital World to the internet?" Koushiro frowned.

"Gods can mess with people's coding. Apocalymon wasn't the only god: Ryo fought one, and I helped him once. I wasn't allowed to help him the last time… The Sovereign wanted to kill another God, and they also wanted to see if the Chosen Children would commit heresy by planning to attack the Four Holy Beasts. So they lied to us, told us that one of them wasn't evil, so that everyone would lie to Ryo not knowing it was a lie, and… And Ryo didn't come back, and Gennai summoned me to give me my Crest and Wormmon and stay out of the Digital World," Ken told him. "The other evil god could do a lot of really scary things. The Four Holy Beasts… Gennai didn't know!" he insisted. "The Dark Masters sealed them away ages ago, he didn't know they were bad guys! He has to pretend he still worships him, because they can control him really easily. I don't know what's happened to him since then…"

"The Four Holy Beasts?"

"Gennai used your crests to unseal them, but instead of using that power to fix the Digital World, he figured out that they were going to seal the worlds away so no one could get in to help the Digimon, and make everyone forget when they made everyone fight each other and made Ryo watch Digimon die and…" His breath hitched. "Ryo's not dead!" He wiped at his eyes with his arm and looked back up to meet Koushiro's, insisting, "He's not dead!"

"Ryo is the person you went to the Digital World with...that's why it was so important to you to get back to the Digital World, and find Wallace's missing partner," Koushiro realized. "You think your friend is trapped in the Digital World with our partners?"

"I don't know where he ended up, or when, but in order to find out I have to get back to the Digital World. To help Gennai, I have to get to the Digital World too, but it's all pointless if as soon as Ryo comes back, the Four Holy Beasts kill him themselves this time and just wipe everyone's memories again. I only escaped because they didn't know that Gennai gave me my crest, and if they find out..."

"This is serious." Koushiro frowned. "The Dark Masters defeated the Four Holy Beasts and we defeated them, but we needed our crests to Digivolve. It may be possible to recreate our crests if we first access the dimension where we fought Apocalymon, and if that's the case..."

"I know you can beat them," Ken said, shaking his head. He had absolute faith they could. "We beat a god, and there were only two of us. You guys are a lot stronger together than Ryo and I were. You have Omegamon, and Tailmon can digivolve into Holydramon, who is just as powerful as they are."

"You know Tailmon's ultimate form?" Koushiro asked, then winced as he realized why that might be true.

Ken nodded. "The Four Holy Beasts aren't as special as they want everyone to think. The problem is that they made it so that the Digital World will fall apart without them. But the Digital World existed before them, and it didn't just fall apart when the Dark Masters sealed them away, so there has to be some other way to preserve the Digital World that doesn't mean abandoning my friends."

"We really can't take the golden spires down," Koushiro said apologetically. "We've run tests, but we can only reduce the coverage beneath the worst case scenario levels we planned by under five percent. My estimate of how much of the energy they had available to them the Four Holy Beasts put into repairing the digital world instead of simply stabilizing it so it still needed them to continue to function was overly optimistic."

"But if Digimon can't digivolve, then what if Apocalymon returns?" Agumon asked, concerned for the Digimon in the area he protected.

"We picked the areas where the Digital World is strongest and left them outside the field effect, even if we'll have to rotate what areas are covered and uncovered once other areas are repaired, since those areas will degrade slightly." Wallace explained, showing them the patchwork of gold and red on his laptop screen. "What's worse: for a Digimon to have to travel in order to Digivolve, or for the entire Digital World to fall apart?" he asked them.

"Isn't there another way?" Sora asked him.

Ken looked hurt. "We're not doing this to cause trouble for everyone," he said, "but this is the only way we could come up with to keep repairing the Digital World without the Four Holy Beasts. Digivolution strains the Digital World, that's why the areas without Golden Spires will start falling apart if we don't change where Digimon go to Digivolve often enough. Once we come up with patches we'll apply them, but we had to get rid of the Sovereign before they tampered with everyone's minds again, and we couldn't just let the Digital World fall apart!"

Well, they could, but he'd thrown Ryo into the future of the Digital World, and if that dimension fell apart before his dear partner arrived? He could calculate the new emergence point, but the risk was unacceptable.

As was the risk that Ryo would ask questions about what happened to bring about the end of the Digital World, even if he would need to be comforted after finding out about the loss of a world he'd come to care about… Hmm, no, finding himself years in the future, separated from all he'd known, with only a handful of people who left who still remembered him would be more than enough to render him vulnerable.