Hello there! Okay so what to say about this?

This is partially a sequel to Fade Away in the sense that the events of that story are canon to this but also Adventure 02 epilogue compliant for the most part. I say for the most part because obviously I have changed certain things like giving TK a daughter instead of a son. However, since we were given so little of the children in the epilogue, this mostly follows canon. Unlike the epilogue, not everyone knows about digimon. Like I said, there are some changes.

I am entering this story in The Novel with Prompts Challenge and this first chapter uses the prompt 'branch'. Thank you so much to NeoMiniTails and coolgamer for betareading the first episode.

1. A Shattered World

In the darkness of the night, DemiDevimon hid away. As a nightmare soldier, he could feel the darkness spreading its terror in swarms as other digimon ran away, trying to protect their young. Often, they'd come together and help one another like soldiers in a war or how a mother hen protects her children.

He flew as fast and hard as he can away from it all, using his bat wings to carry his round blue bowling ball shaped body. The small digimon asked others to help him stay safe, but unsurprisingly, they rejected him on the spot. The digimon prejudged him to be like other dark data types, nightmare soldiers working for a dark lord.

Many remembered the DemiDevimon that worked alongside the great and powerful Myotismon whom terrorized the digital world and the human world. They saw him as no different despite the fact that they weren't even related.

He didn't even like hearing people scream. DemiDevimon took no pleasure in the pain of others so why'd he have to be categorized the same as him? And all the other digimon of his type? It was so unfair. While most digimon helped each other, no one would help him.

He had even many times attempted to rescue injured digimon and nurse them to health to show he was different. However, as soon as they would be restored back to health, they would flee from him, terrified by his appearance, drenched in fear that he was a fallen angel digimon.

A storm was brewing in the digital world. Suddenly, a branch broke near where DemiDevimon was hiding, causing the slaves to turn on him. Sako, one of the creatures who had come into the digital world had been turning digimon into mindless zombies, incapable of free will and those zombie-like digimon had now taken over the entire world.

The small bat-like digimon attempted to duck out of the way of the Unimon, but the other digimon's attack hit him on the wing. DemiDevimon winced as he crashed to the ground. That's it – I'm done for. He closed his eyes, bracing for the impact when something else grabbed him, pulling him away from the brunt of the attack. Someone had saved him? Impossible – everyone hated him right? They found him disgusting due to what he was. Unable to believe it, he looked up to see who it was, and his eyss widened when he saw a calico-colored cat digimon standing in front of him.

"Who are you?" He managed to rasp out with the little strength he had left due. He'd been flying for so long without food or water. DemiDevimon had been so scared that he wouldn't see the light of struck wing ached and burned. He almost wondered if he'd done permanent damage to it.

"I'm Mikemon," The feline digimon replied gently. "Are you alright? We should be safe in here. I've put certain charms to temporarily protect this place. Gennai gave me the power from one of the digicores."

DemiDevimon's tiny body shook from the exhaustion that he felt but he had to ask one thing before he completely passed out. "Aren't you scared of me?"

The cat seemed rather puzzled by this question. "Should I be? Your type doesn't define who you are as a digimon. Your choices do that."

Liquid filled inside DemiDevimon's large eyes but he managed to push it back. "Mikemon… thank you so much." That was all he could get out before his world faded to black.

Mikemon smiled sadly, watching the injured digimon. "You're welcome, DemiDevimon."

Dressed in a white robe, Gennai stood. Behind him were three digital monsters - an ogre, a humanoid lion, and a centaur. They'd taken higher ground, knowing there was nothing more they could do for now and whatever had to be done was to be done by the chosen digimon.

Gennai wanted to believe in the hope that the chosen children gave them once upon a time, but seeing what those creatures of darkness had done in such a short time, that faith was fading. The serenity of the past was gone, and left in its wake was bloodlust, deaths, anger, and more than all that, a loss of common decency.

"Gennai, we need the Digidestined!" Leomon asserted, his gruff voice interrupting the older man's thought process. He didn't have to look far to see what the digital world had become, to notice the change. Leomon didn't have to imagine how they must've felt seeing the rotting corpses, the flailing bodies just barely alive. No, he couldn't close his eyes and ignore the screams that woke him up in his sleep or the faces of the ones who lost their life in this battle.

With eyes sharp as steel, Leomon faced Gennai. The old man had to understand the situation they're facing. There were digimon being slaughtered or worse, being captured and having their data corrupted.

This couldn't go on any longer.

"The Digidestined have abandoned us, Leomon!" Ogremon snapped. "This is what we get for you putting faith in humans, Gennai!" He gritted his large teeth and his hand tightened on his weapon. Anger flared and soared through his body. Stupid humans... lying sons of a gun. He wanted to hit something, do something more than standing there. Still, inside, he knew they'd lost too many fellow digimon by rushing in and trying to handle things themselves. Spit flying out his mouth, he raged on, and he shouted, "The Digital World is ending! Even the Digidestined's partners have been corrupted by this power!"

There was silence. Cold, brooding silence. Ogremon could tell that they knew he was speaking the truth. All of it. He opened his mouth to say something more but stopped upon seeing Centarumon's chest puff up and the air around the green digimon tensed.

Leomon walked forward, his muscles rigid and his eyes frigid. His posture said 'come at me,' and his eyes spoke a more menacing story, 'and you will die.' Leomon may have proven to be stronger, but Ogremon put his weapon in ready position.

Centarumon sighed, interrupting before Leomon and Ogremon could begin bickering once more. "Why don't we allow Gennai to speak? The situation is dire so perhaps sticking together might be a better option than arguing amongst ourselves. Just a suggestion."

Gennai could hear the slight irritation in Centarumon's voice and would have been amused by it in other circumstances, but he was exhausted. Sako had placed a curse on him, and it was slowly draining his code of its vital energy. He was barely managing to go on due to the power from one of the digicores that had been lent to him.

"I have sent one of the Chosen digimon to rescue another one," Gennai finally said. "Once the chosen digimon are brought together, we will send them to the real world to find their human partners. As much as you dislike humans, Ogremon, they are the ones who've saved this world before. I want to believe in them once more."

"Are you kidding?" Ogremon snapped angrily. "They haven't responded once! How do we know those digimon going to the real world will make a difference?"

"For two reasons," Gennai replied still calm, not at all phased by Ogremon's anger. "One – it is possible that the enemy has blocked the communications between the real world and the digital world. Secondly – if the chosen digimon go into the real world, the DigiDestined will definitely understand the severity of the situation. Or Izzy will at the very least."

Ogremon opened his mouth to retort but then shut it again, huffing. "Fine, what do you have in mind?"

"That once more, we place our faith in mankind and in destiny," announced Gennai, solemn and stony-faced.

Ogremon's mouth dropped, he didn't want to trust the same people that could cause harm to their world as had happened in the past few years, especially by that emperor kid, but he also knew Gennai had a point. Leomon's expression went from one of anger and suspicion to fear and anxiety, but there was a light in his eyes that Gennai recognized as the hope that only a warrior like Leomon could possess. Centarumon tilted his head and his expression softened. Together, they stood in shock, looking at the old man.

"Gennai," Leomon murmured. "Is the prophecy of the new Digidestined finally coming true?"

Gennai didn't answer for a moment or so before finally speaking. "The time has come when we finally need to call upon a new group of Digidestined. Our world will fall if we do nothing. These Bio-Hybrids are dangerous creatures and I feel behind them is someone even more powerful. We need to believe in the new DigiDestined. I believe Mikemon will return with one of the rescued Chosen Digimon soon and even if I cannot gather the others, sending the two of them for now will be enough. They will connect with a certain human more than everyone else and that's how the partners will choose their chosen human. Centarumon, make sure the emergency portal is ready. There must be no mistakes."

Centarumon nodded and got to work on the emergency portal to the real world.

Pool of blood. That was what Gumdramon opened his eyes too. He had been captured amidst the chaos and because he was so feisty, some of the Bio-Hybrids had gotten their slaves to try to beat him into submission. He wouldn't give in though. He coughed, wishing he were stronger. If he had been stronger, he would have never been caught like this but he wasn't sure on what he could do right now. If he wanted to keep himself from being a slave, he needed to get out of here.

He smashed his head against the bars that were keeping him imprisoned from the outside world but all that did was make him feel even dizzier than he had before.

"You should save your strength." A squeaky voice from beside him came and the blue dragon digimon turned to see a flower bud digimon covered in bruises, looking at him sympathetically.

"I gotta find a way out of here," Gumdramon replied gruffly. "I'd rather die than become a slave and destroy my own world. I won't give up."

"Working by yourself won't get anything done," The bud said again. "I'm Lalamon, another one of the prisoners here. You're not the only one who wants to get out. You're just the only one brave enough to take a stand. If you can build up the strength, let's all dig our way out of here."

"All?" Gumdramon blinked to see at least seven different digimon trapped in the cage with them. They were all pretty run down, bruises littering their bodies in various arrays of color dictating which were the newest wounds, but upon listening to Lalamon's words, a spark of hope appeared in their eyes and he clenched his paw into a fist and nodded in agreement. "Are you all ready to help me?"

The digimon chorused their agreement. Of the digimon present he recognized members of the species of Prairiemon, Bearmon, Gotsumon, Burgermon, Falcomon, Gaomon and Guilmon and he knew if they all worked together, despite their different abilities, they may be able to escape.

"How long do we have?" Gumdramon asked Lalamon.

"Till before sundown," Lalamon admitted. "They consider us weaker digimon so they don't put tight security but they will check on us at sundown so we better hurry. I think we can do it."

"Ok then!" Gumdramon cried out. "Everyone start digging! These walls are pretty rough but the road to freedom isn't an easy one!" He pushed aside his weakness since he was still bleeding but his injuries could be tended to once they were out of this prison cell because if they didn't get out, he probably wouldn't survive anyway.

Osamu 'Sam' Ichijouji watched Omnimon under observation and saw the blue liquid from a distance. He pushed his indigo hair back to watch in curiosity as his partner, Commandramon stood besides him with a smirk on his face.

"Is Omnimon very ill, Commandramon?" Sam asked softly, worry lacing his voice. "None of the others have been put through this kind of treatment so why Omnimon?"

Commandramon looked at Sam. "He was hurt quite badly. If we don't run this treatment, Omnimon will dedigivolve back to Agumon and Gabumon and they will both die."

"Both?" Sam appeared puzzled by this. "Omnimon is two digimon in one?"

Commandramon nodded. "Yeah. It's called DNA digivolution. His human partners abused him so he would digivolve and fight for them. Most humans are cruel, Sam. You're the one who is most kind. The DigiDestined… remember what I told you about them?"

Sam nodded, biting his lip. He remembered every word. The DigiDestined were a bunch of humans who had tried to claim digimon as their partners and tried to abuse them in order to make them digivolve to destroy both the human and the digital world. They were awful creatures and he knew if they ever found a way into this world again, he'd eliminate each and every one of them. A yawn escaped his lips and he realized he had been working to treat these digimon for the whole day.

"Sam, come on, you need rest," Commandramon said in a gentle voice. "Master would hate it if you collapsed while treating the digimon."

Sam rubbed his eyes. "Yeah I'd better get to sleep huh? Can Daemon-sama get someone to cover for me?"

Commandramon smiled. "I'll make sure Omnimon's treatment is ongoing. You go on ahead to your room."

Sam hugged Commandramon quickly in thanks before skipping off to his room, not seeing the satisfied glint in Commandramon's eyes as he closed the door to his bedroom behind him.