“Don’t worry, they’re fine.” Baihumon said to UlforceVeedramon and Examon as they expressed concern over the status of their friends, “It’s faint, but I can pick out their signals as being nearby. I’ll have one of my Servants… retrieve them.”

Turning to AncientWisemon, there was a sudden shift in the surrounding space as the Ancient disappeared, leaving behind a figure wrapped in a brown cloak and hood.

With a nod to his master, Wisemon descended towards the ground, his senses expanding outwards to search for the components of the now-devolved Gallantmon Crimson Mode.

“That’s enough waiting.” Zhuqiaomon’s voice boomed in irritation, as he suddenly emerged from the aether as Baihumon had just a few moments before. “If anyone else needs to know, you can tell them afterwards. I’ll have no more delays.” The Phoenix of the South rumbled as BanchoLeomon landed next to Examon, curious as to why there were two Sovereigns on the field. 

“Really, now?” The aforementioned lion drawled. “Then get to it. We’ve got lives to get back to.” Zhuqiaomon narrowed his eyes at his insolence, and a gout of flame erupted next to BanchoLeomon’s feet. 

“Be silent, worm. My patience grows thin. Now then, Baihumon, if you would?”

“Right,” Baihumon began, withdrawing the somewhat pointed glare he was shooting Zhuqiaomon for his aggression before continuing; “Now, to begin, I suppose you’re all wondering why the Sovereigns didn’t get involved when Yggdrasil and Imperialdramon were on the warpath?”

“More like wondering why the fuck you didn’t do anything when Yggdrasil’s been dead for god-knows how long,” Examon replied, glaring at both Sovereigns with barely-disguised enmity.

“Perhaps because we didn’t know until just now. After all, it wasn’t as if we inhabited the same domain as he did. Perhaps you should be chastising yourself for that, rather than us.” Zhuqiaomon retorted, spitting out a gout of flame into the air. 

“You can blame Imperialdramon for that,” Examon growled in return, looking incredibly irritated as Zhuqiaomon fired back at him, “And seriously. You’re fucking GODS. At least ONE of you useless bastards must have caught onto it eventually.” I fucked Ob’s mom.

“Yes, well…” Baihumon began, his calm and composed demeanour devolving into a furious and incomprehensible growl of wrath as Examon reminded him of his suspicions.

“...Wait.” Zhuqiaomon snarled, remembering just who it was that had suggested leaving Yggdrasil and his faction be. “I need to confirm something. Baihumon, you can finish up with the humans and their pets.” The phoenix ascended into the air in a blaze of crimson light before shooting off towards the eastern sky. 

“Very well,” Baihumon replied to him as he left, regaining his staggered composure before turning his attention back to Examon with; “We can’t confirm anything at this stage, but we suspect that Azulongmon was hiding a lot of information from the rest of us.”

“... What.”

“Don’t ask me. I have no idea what’s wrong with the bloody reptile,” Baihumon growled, his eyes flashing a deeper shade of red out of sheer irritation.”

“Wow.”

“Look, I’m going to level with you. Azulongmon does not work on anything resembling rationality, logic or common sense. To put it in human terms, he’s every joke and cliche about sneaky politicians rolled into a single body.” At this, BanchoLeomon threw his head back and began laughing his ass off.

“Right. So, what you’re saying is that because one of you happens to be a complete and utter tosspot, Imperialdramon got away with turning the Royal Knights into a fucking fascist regime?”

“That’s about the gist of it, yes.”

“... I don’t know what’s sadder. The fact that you’re using this as an explanation or the fact that I can actually buy that.”

At this, Baihumon shook his head and sighed.

“I’ll not make excuses. As a body, the Sovereigns failed to do their duty. Regardless of any factors that may or may not have influenced that, the failure still stands. You have more than our gratitude for doing what we failed to do.”

“Then are we done here?” BanchoLeomon asked dryly as he stepped forward. “I’m sorry, but as fascinating as this is, we’re pretty much done here. If there’s nothing else, then we might as well be returning to the Real World.”

“Admittedly, I believe there isn’t much else to cover. Until we interrogate Azulongmon fully, we’re hardly any better informed than your group on the matters at hand. All I can really think to broach is the future of the Knights.”

“The future of the Knights?” Examon asked, quirking his metal brow.

“Yggdrasil and Imperialdramon are gone, but the Knights still remain. If I remember correctly, more than half your number remain alive, and the majority of those are your allies. For all the trouble they caused, it seems that it only took the right push for their true priorities to emerge.”

“... Give us some time to convene on our own, then. I’m pretty damn sure that some of us never want to touch anything to do with the Knights ever again.”

“Examon, we can do this some time later.” BanchoLeomon folded his arms, sighing. “Right now, we’re all exhausted and half-dead. Plus, I just realized that we forgot a rather big problem in the Real World. Remember the Kimeramon?”

“That was kind of the point, BanchoLeomon- wait, what.”

Examon’s initial response was tired, but the mention of Kimeramon caused him to freeze.

“Oh fuck, you’re right. Can’t believe we forgot about that. Feels like it’s been years since we bumped into that piece of slapdash shit.”

“No, you’re missing the point.” BanchoLeomon snarled. “Remember what BlackWarGreymon said? That Kimeramon was manmade. It’s been a week since we’ve left the Real World. Whoever was controlling BlackWarGreymon might’ve made more or made the first one stronger.” 

“Mmm-hmm,” Examon started, not entirely convinced he’d missed the point, before leaving off and continuing with; “But yes, I remember. I’m likely going to be stating the obvious, but we need to gather all the forces we have left, bring them to the human world.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Baihumon interjected, quirking a brow, “The human world isn’t exactly like the Digital World. Prepare your allies and your forces, certainly, but remember the damage that you could cause to a world that isn’t ready for you yet.”

“He’s got a point there.” BanchoLeomon said. “We can’t fight a full-on battle in the middle of Tokyo like we just did here. With the amount of collateral damage we put it, we’d be lucky if only a few hundred people were dead by the end of it.”

“True, but it’s not like we’re in a great situation here. I doubt whoever was controlling BlackWarGreymon will care about causing that kind of destruction, and at the very least, we should be prepared to try and threaten him into submission.”

With this, Examon paused, thinking, before he continued.

“We’ll send someone to infiltrate the bastard’s base of operations and take him out before he can pull anything. Whilst whatever he might have created is likely to be a threat, but he’s still a human.”

“I’ll do it.” BanchoLeomon volunteered himself, closing his eyes. “I’m the only logical choice. You’re too large, Zei, Leon, and Jordan might not have the stomach for it, and god knows I don’t trust Beelzemon with anything requiring subtlety.” 

“Fine. I’ll leave this to you, then. Just give me some time to organize and make preparations for the worst-case scenario.”

“Worst-case scenario is the Japanese government loses its head completely and requests the Americans to nuke Tokyo to try to take us all out. Hypothetically, of course.” 

“At the very least, I can lend some aid here,” Baihumon began, as the subject of nuclear weapons was raised, “I’m aware of the danger that those particular human weapons pose to humans and Digimon that aren’t resistant to them, but they pale in comparison to the power of the Sovereigns. Should the worst come to pass, I’d not hesitate to lend you the aid of the Sovereigns and take preventative measures.”

“You can stop a nuke from detonating, then?” BanchoLeomon raised an eyebrow. “Because the radiation’s the problem, not the explosion. I’d rather not see what that would do to a Digimon, much less have Hiroshima and Nagasaki happen again.” 

“The scope of the powers of a Sovereign may surprise you. At the very least, the weapons can be redirected to where their consequences will be of far lesser concern. Complete annihilation would be simplest, granted, but there are many preventative measures that can be taken.”

“Fine by me. I’m going to go find BlackWarGreymon and get some information out of him. Just call for me when we’re ready to leave, Examon.” BanchoLeomon nodded in respect towards both Examon and Baihumon before turning around to leave. 

Returning BanchoLeomon’s nod, Baihumon then turned his attentions back to Examon.

“I’ll remain here with you and your allies. If you need to make any preparations, get onto them now and get them done as quickly as possible.”

“Alright,” Examon replied, nodding to Baihumon as he rose into the air and headed for the ruined castle in the distance.

It was time. Time to put an end to this mess once and for all.
___

Meanwhile, Zhuqiaomon literally burst into Azulongmon’s domain, crashing through the walls of his fortress in a burst of flame, and snarled in fury at the Dragon of the East.

“You knew.” Azulongmon looked up to the fiery Sovereign, his expression unreadable. He or Antylamon would probably need to patch that hole later, before the draft got bothersome.

“If I did?” He didn’t need to ask what Zhuqiaomon was referring to. Only one revelation would have infuriated him like this.

“Then you are a damned fool. We could have disposed of Yggdrasil’s corpse months ago! Do you know how much chaos the Royal Knights have caused under Imperialdramon’s leadership? They have intruded upon our domains, made a mockery of our rule, and practically enslaved Digimon that were supposed to be under our protection! And you let this insult against us stand? By a mere Knight?! Have you lost your accursed mind, Sovereign of the East?” Zhuqiaomon roared, flames erupting in Azulongmon’s throne room. Azulongmon exhaled deeply, invoking his powers to keep the embers from doing any further damage and uncoiled to better look Zhuqiaomon in the eyes.

“I will not deny I had made mistakes in handling this. Had I known Alphamon was still alive and had the loyalty of so many Knights, I would have contacted her and explained the situation. However, when I found out about Yggdrasil, at the time, I did not know. I only knew the Knights were either loyal to Yggdrasil or loyal to those who followed him. If I approached even Examon to tell him what I knew, I would have been rebuked, most likely. If I had torn the castle apart to prove it, Imperialdramon would have manipulated it to make it appear I had slain Yggdrasil, and we would have truly been at war.” He let the words hang; he doubted Zhuqiaomon would need time to absorb the information, but he was reflecting on how much worse the damage would have been. He could only imagine the land scorched, Devas destroyed, Knights and Sovereigns weakened, and Huanglongmon rising to finish the image of annihilation. “I knew if I told the rest of you, you would want to intervene.” He did not think he was wrong there, giving where Zhuqiaomon had come from.

“You act as if intervening would not be the correct course of action.” Zhuqiaomon snarled, flames licking across his own body in outrage. “We are the Four Sovereigns, you fool. Without Yggdrasil, the Knights lack the power to resist us. Had you simply informed us, we could have destroyed the Knights in one fell swoop and reconstituted them under our control.” 

“I’m certain that would have gone well.” Azulongmon’s calm facade had begun to crumble. “I would think it far more likely that, instead of an internal civil war, WE would have been targeted instead in this war. Do not think my isolation has left me ignorant. At best, they’d become martyrs and we would be considered the tyrant Imperialdramon became.” A low blow, to be honest. Azulongmon didn’t mind saying it - as if anyone would actually consider HIM comparable to Imperialdramon - but he doubted Zhuqiaomon would take it nearly as well.

“As if this has left us any better in the eyes of the people.” Zhuqiaomon spat, vindictively satisfied that Azulongmon was starting to lose his composure. “As it stands, the Royal Knights have torn each other apart, and instead of we Sovereigns intervening to fix the problem, a group of humans partnered with power-hungry fools slew the tyrant Imperialdramon. What does your [i]vast wisdom[/i] say to this, Azulongmon?”

“I do believe you have that backwards, it would say.” The light joke did help his mood. “Antylamon, would you fetch us both a drink? I think it would be appreciated.” His Deva left - and, with them alone, Azulongmon let his lightning crackle, the sheer electric force pervading the air. “Do you really think the original problem had to do with anything so trifling as the Knights? Remember before, when humans were partnered to digimon before? How we found it impossible to do anything to keep this world safe? I do not deny, I was still working out how to deal with Yggdrasil and the Knights alone until that girl came here. That’s when I knew - we wouldn’t be able to intervene again in whatever was coming. And if these tamers couldn’t handle Imperialdramon, then how could we expect them to save our world?”

“You still believe we need to rely on humans to save us?” Zhuqiaomon spat, materializing flames to match Azulongmon’s lightning. “We are Huanglongmon’s chosen four! With his slumber, we are the closest to gods that a Digimon can reach! Should we unite, nothing short of all seven Demon Lords combined can match us, you utter fool! Rely on your own power and that of your kin, not the power of humans!” Azulongmon maintained his glare before finally sighing and leaning back, his anger replaced by fatigue.

“Zhuqiaomon, tell me: why else do you think tamers are here?” 

“Perhaps because Imperialdramon abducted a human? I cannot fault them for protecting their own.” 

“You know what I meant. It’s not every day a partnership is established between human and digimon.”

“Feh.” Zhuqiaomon spat, extinguishing his flames as he turned his back on Azulongmon. “I warn you, Sovereign of the East: trust your brothers. Believe in our power. Believe in your own. Nothing in this world or the humans’ can resist the power of four Sovereigns combined. Should you turn your back on us once more, I will kill you. Your treachery shall be forgiven this time, but never again.” And with that, he flew off into the sky, blazing across the horizon. Azulongmon nodded, collapsing back to his original position.

“It is noted...Zhuqiaomon.” Antylamon then returned at last with two barrels and looked around the scorched throne room.

“Sir?”

“He departed on official business.” Azulongmon looked down at his faithful servant. No point in worrying her. “Would you care to join me for a drink?”