//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: Trip Down Memory Lane (part 2) The Truth // Story: BlackWarGreymon: Warrior of Harmony // by I-C-U-P //------------------------------// Princess Luna had hoped that by going inside BlackWarGreymon’s mind, she, along with Princess Twilight and Princess Celestia, thought they would get to see the Digimon’s wonderful dreams. But what they were seeing wasn’t what they were expecting. At first seeing the DigiDestined and their Digimon together seemed promising, but with the discovery of the land full of Control Spires and two sinister strangers, their hopes dashed out the window. The most startling event the three princesses had seen was the appearance of BlackWarGreymon himself. Combined from data from a massive group of Control Spires on top of a small mountain. After he made his presence known, he yelled out to the world. His loud outburst echoed through the entire area for all to hear. As he did, his sudden burst of aggression sent shivers of fear down the spines of the three Alicorns. “Oh my…” Luna said to herself while trying to hide her fear. Then the three ponies heard the three remaining Digimon talking amongst themselves. “What should we do, Ankylomon?” Exveemon asked. “I say protecting the kids is high on the list,” The huge yellow Digimon answered. “I agree,” Aquilamon added. With protecting their human partners decided, the three Digimon charged the newly created Control Spire Digimon head on. All unaware of the situation they’re in. The princesses then turned their attention to BlackWarGreymon, who was still on the mountain. After spotting his opponents, the black Digimon flew towards the approaching group at high speed. Then grappled with Exveemon. At this point, the princesses noticed that the blue Digimon completely dwarfed BlackWarGreymon. He was much bigger. At first it seemed insane of him to tackle an opponent much bigger then himself, but what Twilight had learned from him was that Megas were one of the strongest kind of Digimon and that size could be deceiving. After gaining a firm lock on the surprised Exveemon, BlackWarGreymon reared his head back and then slammed it onto the blue Digimon. The blow sent him crashing to the ground. Then BlackWarGreymon flew to Aquilamon and punched the giant red bird Digimon in the face, sending him reeling back. After noticing Ankylomon aiding the fallen Exveemon, BlackWarGreymon swooped down, collided into the two Digimon and pushed them across the field with unparalleled strength. After the Artificial Digimon freed them from his grasp, the three heroic Digimon teamed up and attacked BlackWarGreymon together. But despite being outnumbered, BlackWarGreymon was not only holding his own in the fight, but was gaining the upper-hand. It was obvious that three Champion level Digimon were no match for a Mega. “I don’t believe it! He’s outnumbered three-to-one, but he’s winning!” Luna said in disbelief while witnessing more of BlackWarGreymon’s strength. “The three Digimon are only at the Champion level. BlackWarGreymon’s too strong for them,” Twilight informed the night princess. “But I don’t understand. Why is he dreaming about attacking the good Digimon!?” Celestia asked in concern. Hearing her made Twilight and Luna more focused on the situation. While the Alicorns were trying to puzzle things through, they noticed that Aquilamon flew away with one of the human girls on him. Presumably getting help from somewhere else. They also noticed that BlackWarGreymon grabbed Exveemon by the scruff of the neck and dragged him across the field while pressing him down. Twilight recognised this as it was the same tactic the Digimon used against Tirek. Luna meanwhile decided that enough was enough and came to a conclusion. “Celestia! Twilight! BlackWarGreymon must be experiencing a nightmare about harming the good. As such it’s my duty to rid such thoughts!” She said before flying off towards the warring Digimon. By the time she landed close to them, BlackWarGreymon was lifting Ankylomon overhead. Her horn began to glow a misty white as she pointed it at the black Digimon. “BEGONE NIGHTMARE!!!” She shouted before firing her magic beam at BlackWarGreymon. What would normally happen was that the nightmare and any other source of discomfort would disappear entirely. But not this time! All Luna’s magic had done was simply pass through BlackWarGreymon as if he was a ghost. After seeing her spell fail in front of her, Luna’s eyes shrunk considerably while letting out a gasp of horror and realisation. Her spell not working could only mean one thing. But how could she had not realised? She was a Dream Walker. She should had known which was which. As Celestia and Twilight approached her with concerned eyes, they saw the grief on Luna’s face. "Luna, what happened? Why didn’t your spell worked?” Twilight asked, but Luna was too in shock to say anything. “Luna?” Celestia asked, growing more concerned to Luna’s lack of response. Luna then finally turned to face the other two Alicorns and spoke with an expression of both shock and sadness. “Celestia…Twilight…I’m…I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” “What’s wrong? What is it, sister!?” Celestia asked, growing even more concerned than before. But what Luna said next, shocked the two Alicorns right down to the core. “This…This is not a nightmare. This isn’t even a dream! It’s a memory!!” Both Twilight and Celestia let out loud gasps of horror and disbelief. “Wait, Luna. You mean that everything we saw, everything we’re seeing… has already happened!?” Celestia asked. Luna only nodded her head in reply. Though BlackWarGreymon already told Twilight about his past, but she never expected anything like what she was seeing. The three Alicorns looked back at the battle in front of them, knowing that it had already happened in the past. Exveemon fell on his back, exhausted from his fight with his powerful foe. As BlackWarGreymon was about to finish him off, he was tackled by Ankylomon, who spoke to his fallen friend. “Let’s keep fighting! I’m sure that Stingmon will show up soon!” Hearing the plea made the blue Digimon rise back on his feet. Not refusing to give in while his friends needed him. Hearing and seeing these events made the three Alicorns smile at how strong the Digimon’s friendship were to one another. Then they saw Aquilamon flying back to the battle with an ally. He looked like a flying, bipedal green bug with blades on his wrists and spikes on his shoulders. The fight was going to escalate. As the three Alicorns the blue dragon Digimon and the green bug Digimon glowing at the same time, Twilight was feeling giddy again. They were about to digivolve, but unlike the two digivolutions before, they were about to do it in a different way. “Exveemon…” “Stingmon…” “…DNA digivolve to…PAILDRAMON!!” Twilight, Luna and Celestia got a chance to see a Hybrid Digimon for the first time. “Th…they…they fused together to form one!” Twilight shouted to herself, but quickly recomposed herself as she and the royal sisters saw him heading straight for BlackWarGreymon. As the Hybrid Digimon flew closer, the Artificial Digimon too flew towards him head on. “This is gonna get ugly!” Paildramon said while drawing out his wrist blades. The three ponies noticed that his voice sounded like Exveemon and Stingmon talking at the same time. As the two Digimon collided into one another, they released a brief flash of red and the shockwave threw dust everywhere. The shockwave, as well as the impact, forced the two Digimon to bounce away from each other. As BlackWarGreymon landed back on the ground, Paildramon stayed airborne. “Wow, talk about meeting head-to-head! We’re gonna need an aspirin the size of a Control Spire after this fight!” The Hybrid Digimon said, noting that the impact hurts more than it looked. As BlackWarGreymon waited patiently on the ground, Paildramon grabbed his two guns attached to his waist and pointed them at his target. “DESPERADO BLASTER!” The moment the fused Ultimate level Digimon said those words, the barrels of his guns began to collect and build blue energy. Then a massive volley of blue lazers were fired at BlackWarGreymon. As the lazers struck their target, BlackWarGreymon was engulfed by the light as the land around him began to crumble. Despite being under fire, the Control Spire Digimon’s silhouette could be seen through the light, completely unmoved. As the Hybrid Digimon stopped firing, the glow faded to reveal the ground reduced to rubble, and right in the middle of it all, was the unharmed and unmoved BlackWarGreymon! This left everyone and everypony gawking at him and his insane durability. “Uh oh!” Paildramon said while BlackWarGreymon let out a sinister chuckle. “I…I don’t believe it!” Twilight said. “Thou doesn’t even have a scratch!” Luna added. “Impossible!” Celestia said to herself. Truth be told that she was the only one out of the three who hadn’t seen BlackWarGreymon in action firsthand. Then to everyone’s surprise, BlackWarGreymon’s entire eye sockets glowed an intense white glow. After the glow vanished, he stood tall while being shrouded in a bright light that surrounded his body. As it did, he released another vocal outburst. “RRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” What followed next was a colossal blinding explosion that engulfed everything around it in a mile radius. Because that it was a memory, the three Alicorns were completely immune to the blast. But they had to shield their eyes from the intense light to prevent from being blinded. Once the light finally faded, the three mares were stricken at what they saw. Half the land was completely decimated, all the teens were knocked out, and the Digimon were both unconscious and reduced to their lesser, smaller forms. The three mares just stood there in stunned silence, they still couldn’t believe that what transpired here, actually did happen. BlackWarGreymon did this. A thunderous footstep brock their attention away from the fallen heroes and towards its source. They saw BlackWarGreymon standing beside them, also looking at the destruction he caused. After a brief silence, the three fearful princesses heard the woman talking. Speaking to her finest creation. “You have done an outstanding job, BlackWarGreymon.” What she said next raised the fears in the princesses as well as making them slightly tremble. “You may now proceed to destroy the Digital World!” The three mares couldn’t believe what they were hearing. She actually wanted the whole world to be destroyed. And worse, their beloved saviour was going to do it himself. As they turned to see BlackWarGreymon, they expected him to do just that. Trembling at the thoughts of the Digimon they knew, laying waste to the strange yet beautiful world. But it never came. Instead of obeying his creator, BlackWarGreymon just stood still. Not moving a muscle as if he was a statue. This confused the princesses. Getting irritated by his lack of response, the man dressed in blue spoke to the Artificial Digimon. “Don’t just stand there patting yourself on the back, your master has given you new orders! Now get to work!” What caught Twilight, Celestia and Luna off-guard was that BlackWarGreymon spoke back in a serious tone. “I will take orders from no one.” His creators were completely taken back by BlackWarGreymon’s rebellious attitude. Never before had one of their creations been disobedient. “YOU WHAT!!” The three on-looking ponies remained silent, both from shock and from wanting to listen carefully. “Why should I take orders from you? When you are so weak you need me to do your fighting for you,” He said as he turned his head to look at his creators. As he finished his sentence he faced back in front of him, looking out to the wide open space of the fields beyond. “I must find a more worthy opponent.” BlackWarGreymon then took off into the sky, flying away from the carnage he caused. As he disappeared over the horizon, the world around the three mares vanished into nothingness as the memory finished. They found themselves back in the Digimon’s mind. The three just stood there, completely motionless. The events they witnessed completely shocked the princesses to the core of their souls. It was evident on their fear-stricken faces, slightly wobbly legs and widened eyes. “I…I don’t believe it! It can’t be true!” Twilight said, hoping that it was some kind of illusion. “I’m sorry, Twilight. But Luna said it was his memory.” Celestia said to Twilight despite that she too didn’t want to believe. Luna meanwhile was silent. It seemed the events they’ve seen affected her the most. Her big sister saw Luna’s expression and stood by her side to comfort her. “It’s ok, Luna. You didn’t know. We all didn’t.” They were then joined by another voice, echoing through the Digimon’s mind. “And I want you out.” Hearing the familiar voice sent more fivers down the spines of the princesses. Turning around to the source of the voice, they met with the recognizable form of BlackWarGreymon. Walking towards them with a rather angry look in his eyes. Because that they weren’t in a dream or a memory, the BlackWarGreymon the princesses were looking at was his subconscious. Basically the Digimon himself. After seeing the relic of his dark past, the three mares couldn’t help but feel a wave of fear towards BlackWarGreymon. Seeing the things that he’d done. But they had to remember that what they saw was all in the past and that they were in the present. That didn’t help however because of the Digimon’s angry expression. After stopping some distance away from Twilight, Celestia and Luna, BlackWarGreymon spoke up in a dead serious tone. “I won’t ask how, but I will ask why. Why are you all in my mind!?” He demanded. “BlackWarGreymon! It-It’s not what you think!” Twilight explained, so far being the only one able to talk. But her answer only made the Digimon angrier than he was. “Isn’t it!? You’re all here because you don’t trust me, don’t you? Even after everything I did for you and your whole world, you suspect me for planning ill intent. Or is it the way I look? Yes, I admit I look terrifying. But I thought you’ve seen past that!” As BlackWarGreymon spoke, his voice got louder as he lost his temper. “No! It’s nothing like that! Honest!” Twilight said, hoping to calm down the angry Digimon. “Then why are you here!?” BlackWarGreymon asked. Then Luna confessed. “I’m sorry, BlackWarGreymon. It’s my fault.” The Digimon was slightly stunned at hearing the blue Alicorn. He wasn’t expecting it to be her doing at all. Truth be told that he thought it would most likely be Twilight. “You?” He asked, almost sounding as if he didn’t believed her. Luna explained herself. “I…it wasn’t intended. W-we only wanted to see your dreams. To see what they were like.” “But instead, you found my memories.” The Digimon added, Luna started to feel guilty. “It…it was an accident. I’ve never been inside a Digimon’s mind before. I…I…” Before Luna could finish, BlackWarGreymon finished for her. “You got lost and chose the wrong path.” The three ponies noticed that the Digimon was calming down as his voice softened. With the warrior’s temper out of his system, Twilight wanted to get one thing out of the way. “BlackWarGreymon. Since that was your memory, does that mean that…?” Twilight was unable to find the correct words to finish her sentence. But BlackWarGreymon knew what she was on about. “Yes. You three are the first ones to have witnessed my birth.” He received a collection of gasps from the three princesses. “Tha-That was how you were created!?” Twilight asked. “What did you expect? Me being grown in some sort of lab or something?” He responded rhetorically. However, Celestia and Luna understood the kind of tone between the young Alicorn and the Digimon. Both of them then stared at Twilight in confusion. “Twilight, you knew about this?” Celestia asked. It was Twilight’s turn to feel guilty. “…yes. Me and my friends know.” But why didn’t you tell us about it before?” Luna asked. She and Celestia felt slightly betrayed. “I-I’m sorry. I should have told you sooner but, I was trying to give BlackWarGreymon a good first impression when he first met both of you,” Twilight admitted while feeling ashamed. “So that’s why you mentioned only the good things about me in that letter to Celestia,” BlackWarGreymon said. With the truth in the clear, Celestia understood what Twilight tried to do. Feeling sorry for her former student, the white Alicorn wrapped one hoof around Twilight to bring her in for a hug. “It’s ok, Twilight. We understand now,” She said, comforting Twilight. With her being forgiven, Twilight turned back to BlackWarGreymon. “BlackWarGreymon. That woman, was she the one you told me about?” She asked while the royal sisters got more curious by the second. “Yes. But what you’ve seen was just her human form, she was in fact a Digimon. The Digimon who created me… Arukenimon.” Twilight was lost for words. Just the thought of someone creating life the unnatural way felt unreal. But in BlackWarGreymon’s case, it was possible. “And who was that strange man that’s with her?” Celestia asked. “I guess you could call him her admirer. He too is a Digimon, named Mummymon.” Hearing the silly name made the three mares giggle in amusement. “That’s a funny name,” Twilight said after her giggles. After they stopped, Luna asked BlackWarGreymon a serious question. “Please tell us. Why did she create you?” “That’s a good question, Luna. But you won’t like the answer. Arukenimon brought me into the world with no purpose but to be her slave.” His answer made the royal sisters gasp in horror. “A… slave?” Celestia asked. “Yes. You see, because I wasn’t born like a normal Digimon, I am dubbed as an Artificial Digimon. Which meant I was a mockery of the original.” “A mockery?” Luna asked, but she let BlackWarGreymon continue his story. “And I wasn’t the first either. Arukenimon created lots more Artificial Digimon before me. But unlike me they were mindless obedient creatures with no sense of morale or mercy.” While Twilight remembered hearing the details before, the royal sisters meanwhile couldn’t believe what they were hearing. “But…how is it that you’re not like that?” Luna asked him, growing more concerned for him. “What makes me different was that I was the only one to be created from one hundred Control Spires. All that data from the Spires gave me my own free will.” “So is that why you didn’t obey her,” Celestia said. “Yes. I left her behind to find my own purpose.” Then there was a brief moment of silence before BlackWarGreymon spoke again. “So now that you know the truth of my origin. I request that you leave.” Twilight, Celestia and Luna thought otherwise. Their confusion and concern for their Digimon friend was getting the better of them. They wanted to know more. “BlackWarGreymon, would it be ok if we see more of your memories?” Luna asked. The sudden turn of events made the jet black dragon warrior flinch. Not only did they enter his mind without letting him know first, but they dared to ask to see more of his dark past. No. He would not stand for it. They had already seen enough to know that he was once evil. He had to put an end to it. “No. You have seen too much of my past, you don’t need to see anymore.” Although Twilight and Celestia were about to give in, Luna stood her ground. “No. I don’t think we’ve seen enough. You can’t just leave it like that. All we’ve seen was the beginning, when you were evil. But something happened to you that turned you good. I…We want to see how you changed.” BlackWarGreymon turned away from the mares before he responded. “No. There are events that I don’t want you to see. That even I don’t want to see. Now please leave and let’s never speak of this again.” As he started to walk away, Luna lost her temper. “BlackWarGreymon! Show us your memories!” She shouted as she stomped her hoof. Her outburst caused BlackWarGreymon to stop in his tracks, but he said nothing. But from the way his muscles become tense all of a sudden, Twilight and Celestia were worried that Luna may had gone too far. Then to their surprise, they heard echoing voices throughout the mind they were in. The mares realised that the voices were like audios to the memory they witnessed. “Destroy the Digital world.” “Your master…” “Get to work.” “New orders.” “Why should I…” “I will take orders from no one.” After hearing mixed voices of the past BlackWarGreymon, Arukenimon and Mummymon, the mares felt that it all showed an important point. A worrying one too. This didn’t help when the Alicorns saw BlackWarGreymon turning his head to face them. Revealing the burning fury in his eyes. “Are you…giving me…orders!?” His question sent shivers of fear in the three mares. Realising from what they had seen and heard the three could tell that BlackWarGreymon wasn’t the type to obey orders from others weaker then himself. “N-No! I…It wasn’t an order! It’s…” Luna was cut off by the angered Digimon. “Well it sounded like it! Now let me tell you this.” He said as he approached the Alicorns, his voice almost like a growl. The mares couldn’t help but take a few steps back from fear. Realising that even he had a nerve that was best left alone. The sentence BlackWarGreymon had for the mares was indeed the deciding factor. “Just give me one good reason why it would be beneficial for you to witness more of my past.” After what felt like an eternity of silence, Twilight gave him a reason. “Because we want to help you.” The black Digimon was taken back by the new development. He wasn’t even expecting an answer at all. “To help me?” “Yes. We’re your friends, and friends help each other no matter what. If you show us your past, we can get to know you more and it would even bring our friendship closer,” Twilight added. “Or force it apart,” BlackWarGreymon said quietly, but loud enough for the princesses to hear. Hearing him say such things made the three ponies grow sad expressions on their faces. They thought that he believed their friendship would break if they went through with the idea. Celestia spoke up as she approached him. “Luna and Twilight are right, BlackWarGreymon. If you show us, we would get a better understanding of you. We promise we won’t hold any grudges against you, all we’re asking is…please?” A long silence followed as BlackWarGreymon thought it over, leaving the mares waiting in anticipation. He found that their reasons were possible, but he feared that his reasons would be true. After releasing a heavy sigh, he came with a decision. “Fine.” “What?” Celestia asked, making sure she and the others heard him correctly. “You win. I’ll let you see my past,” He said, earning smiles of approval from the princesses. “But I must warn you, what you all about to see isn’t for the faint hearted,” BlackWarGreymon added. Twilight walked over to him and placed her hoof on his leg in an attempt to comfort him. “Don’t worry. I promise when this is over, we will still be best friends.” Twilight’s words softened BlackWarGreymon’s expression. If he could smile, he would be doing it. With nothing more to say, the three Alicorns walked into the next bright orb into the next memory. BlackWarGreymon stayed behind to await their return, hoping that he wouldn’t regret the choice he had made.