Work Text:
Before I can lay out my intended plot, first I need to explain the changes the lack of Millenniumon causes.
I’m retconning 02 so that the Myotismon there is a time traveller from this timeline (explained later), Myotismon immediately after being killed in Adventure is irrelevant at the time in both timelines.
Millenniumon not forming means all four Ryo games don’t happen. (I guess the Tamers are screwed if he’s not there).
Because of the butterfly effect, in the original timeline Ryo is on holiday in Turkey in Our War Game while he’s at home in the on-screen timeline.
Neither Ken nor Ryo go to the Digital World pre-02 and never reassemble the Digimentals. (They’re assembled when they show up in this through the magic of plot convenience!)
Wormmon doesn’t meet Ken until 2002 (as opposed to 2000) and the other three aren’t sealed inside Digimentals.
Ken never gets Dark Spored, never becomes Digimon Emperor and never creates Dark Towers or Rings.
The Sovereigns remain unsealed.
The power vacuum that would’ve been filled by Ken as the Digimon Emperor is instead filled by the Daemon Corps, who begin conquering the Digital World in early 2002.
And this is where the story starts:
Chapter/Episode/whatever 1: Davis, Ken, TK, Kari, Cody and Yolei are transported to the Digital World and meet their partners, Veemon, Wormmon, Patamon, Gatomon, Armadillomon and Hawkmon, before being attacked by minions of the Daemon Corps. (Not revealed in this chapter, but Myotismon’s ghost hitches a ride with them).
Chapter 2: On the run from the Daemon Corps, Patamon digivolves to Angemon and defends the kids alongside Gatomon.
Chapter 3: The kids defend a copy of the Empire State Building (change?) from a swarm of Vilemon after Angemon is badly wounded and Veemon digivolves to ExVeemon.
Chapter 4: Ken runs off with Wormmon and gets lost in a Kuwagamon nest, Wormmon saves him by digivolving to Stingmon, Myotismon’s ghost is controlling one which seems smarter than the rest.
Chapter 5: The kids rest near a river before some Gesomon pop out of a sewage pipe, but are repelled by Hawkmon digivolving to Aquilamon.
Chapter 6: The kids meet the Ogremon from Adventure, who agrees to spy on a group of Ogremon minions of the Daemon Corps, but has to be rescued by Armadillomon digivolving to Ankylomon.
Chapter 7: Daemon visits the Dark Whirlpool and uses his dark powers to resurrect Devimon, while the kids meet Gennai in his house under Temp Lake alongside the original five DigiDestined, including Daigo and Maki, who give them Crests and tell them that once they’ve reached the Perfect stage, they might be able to use artifacts called Digimentals to power a Jogress into the Mega stage.
Chapter 8: One night by the campfire Davis overhears one of the other kids saying they think he’s not a very good leader, so he has a chat with Veemon and resolves to get better, SkullSatamon shows up the next day, Veemon is able to digivolve to Piledramon with Davis’ new Crest of Courage/Friendship and break SkullSatamon’s staff, making him retreat.
Chapter 9: Ken feels isolated from the rest of the group since they already knew each other at least a bit while he met them all for the first time when they got to the Digital World, so he considers leaving again, but Wormmon convinces him to stay and help protect the rest of the group and get to know them, LadyDevimon appears but his pep talk to Ken was enough to get Wormmon to digivolve to DinoBeemon with Ken’s new Crest of Kindness and daze LadyDevimon long enough for the entire group to escape.
Chapter 10: The older kids are getting increasingly overprotective of Cody, MarineDevimon attacks the group and soaks everyone except Cody’s Digivices with water, briefly stopping them from working, so Armadillomon digivolves to Shakkoumon with Cody’s new Crest of Knowledge/Reliability and soundly defeats him, showing that Cody can contribute without needing to be babied.
Chapter 11: Yolei feels lost in the shuffle like at home since half the group have Perfects and the other two have Holy Champions (especially effective against Dark Digimon, their main enemies), while she just has Aquilamon, talking with Hawkmon helps her get over this and digivolve Hawkmon to Silphymon with Yolei’s new Crest of Love/Sincerity so he can kick LadyDevimon’s can back to the Daemon Corps’ base.
Chapter 12: Kari’s feelings of inferiority to Tai send her and Gatomon to the Dark Ocean, where they find a Digimental with an unknown Crest on it and fight back against some “Divermon” by digivolving Gatomon to Angewomon with Kari’s replacement Crest of Light, before returning (basically the same as the episode except they came from the Digital World not the Human World and they find a Digimental).
Chapter 13: Kari and Gatomon disappear, and when they return they have a Digimental which Davis convinces them to try and use to Jogress with him and Veemon, the Digimental turns out to be Desire and Angewomon and Piledramon Dark Jogress into Ophanimon Falldown Mode, who goes berserk and starts to rampage.
Chapter 14: While fleeing from the rampaging Ophanimon Falldown Mode TK runs into the resurrected Devimon and starts to clutch at Patamon to remind himself that Patamon’s still alive, Devimon digivolves to NeoDevimon and nearly kills both of them, but Patamon is able to digivolve to HolyAngemon with TK’s replacement Crest of Hope and save TK.
Chapter 15: Gennai brings the rest of the ‘99 kids back to the Digital World and replaces their Crests, Omegamon is able to stop Ophanimon Falldown Mode and defuse her back into Gatomon and Veemon, the non-TK/Kari kids meet the ‘99 kids for the first time, Yolei in particular meets Mimi and gains a crush on her. (Yolei/Mimi is relevant for the former’s character development but won’t sail).
Chapter 16: Daemon uses the convenient distraction of Ophanimon Falldown Mode to attack the Sovereigns, fatally wounding them and stealing Digi-Cores from them which he uses to digivolve SkullSatamon to Barbamon, LadyDevimon to Lilithmon, MarineDevimon to Leviamon, and NeoDevimon to another Daemon.
Chapter 17: The Demon Lords appear before all twelve kids, Davis and Tai leap into action against Barbamon, during the battle WarGreymon is forced to degenerate to MetalGreymon, Davis realises his crush on Kari was partly responsible for Ophanimon Falldown Mode, so he gives up on it and shatters the Digimental of Desire, which causes the Digimental of Courage to appear to him and Tai, letting them Jogress Piledramon and MetalGreymon together into Imperialdramon Dragon Mode and kill Barbamon.
Chapter 18: Yolei and Sora go into combat against Lilithmon, Yolei admits to Sora that she’s bisexual and has a crush on Mimi, causing the Digimental of Love to appear to the two of them so they can Jogress Silphymon and Garudamon into Valkyriemon and kill Lilithmon.
Chapter 19: Cody and Joe battle Leviamon, Shakkoumon struggles to fight in an aquatic environment, Cody briefly feels like he’s not honouring his dead father by taking a pathway into law before deciding to focus on the battle and saving Joe from Leviamon’s jaws, causing the Digimental of Reliability to appear and they Jogress Shakkoumon and Zudomon into Vikemon, who kills Leviamon. (the reason for the Digimental appearing is pretty weak, def replace or improve)
Chapter 20: Ken, Izzy, TK, Matt, Kari and Mimi fight the two Daemon, Ken reveals to Izzy that he feels responsible for his brother’s death because he’d wished for his brother to go away not long before, so Izzy reveals to Ken that he’s adopted, the two bonding makes the Digimental of Knowledge appear so DinoBeemon and MegaKabuterimon Jogress into GranKuwagamon.
Chapter 21: During the fight against the two Daemon, MetalGarurumon gets degenerated down to WereGarurumon, TK and Matt spend a bit of sibling time together letting them get the Digimental of Friendship and Jogress HolyAngemon and WereGarurumon into Seraphimon, but a stray attack knocks a boulder on top of Kari who appears to be dead, TK freaks out and Seraphimon starts to turn into ShadowSeraphimon, which the not-dead Kari sees and has flashbacks to Ophanimon Falldown Mode, but she steps out from under the boulder, Seraphimon goes back to normal and fatally wounds the Daemon that digivolved from Devimon.
Chapter 22: Daemon absorbs the data of his nearly deceased minion and loses the cloak, Kari admits to Mimi that she’s terrified of Ophanimon Falldown Mode coming back but they clearly need another Mega, being so honest gets the Digimental of Sincerity to appear so they Jogress Angewomon and Lillymon into Holydramon, who with Seraphimon and GranKuwagamon kills Daemon.
Chapter 23: The kids and their partners rest, while Myotismon’s ghost uses Devimon’s data to complete Chimeramon, his new body, then possesses it and alongside the MarineChimeramon he also created attacks the DigiDestined, the Sovereigns protect them but expire from their wounds and use their power to revitalise them.
Chapter 24: Chimeramon and MarineChimeramon kick everyone’s butts but Seraphimon and Holydramon last long enough that they can create the Golden Digimentals of Miracles and Destiny.
Chapter 25: Veemon and Wormmon Golden Armour digivolve to GoldVeedramon and Kongoumon, who are able to kill MarineChimeramon, Chimeramon and Myotismon, but Chimeramon and Machinedramon’s data merges in the Dark Area into Millenniumon and time travel back three years, with Myotismon hitching a ride, causing the timeline to split and the show as we know it to happen. (It doesn’t cause this timeline to stop existing though).
Chapter 26: A happy ending, it turns out the Sovereigns left behind Digi-Eggs which hatch into a Bubbmon (Qinglongmon), a Nyokimon (Zhuqiaomon), a Botamon (Baihumon) and a Pichimon (Xuanwumon).
One-shot sequel 1: An adaption of Revenge of Diablomon altered to suit the events of this timeline.
When Piledramon would digivolve to Imperialdramon Dragon Mode instead the other kids digivolve to Mega to fight Armageddemon, Davis ends up being able to get him to digivolve anyway through sheer force of will but Armageddemon forcibly fuses with him into Zexmon who defeats Omegamon, the Baby Sovereigns are able to briefly summon ghostly forms of their Megas (kinda like the Angels in Frontier) to give the power of digivolving to Mega without a Jogress to all twelve partners, so Omegamon, Phoenixmon, Rosemon, HerculesKabuterimon, Plesiomon, Seraphimon, Holydramon, GranKuwagamon, Valkyriemon and Vikemon are able to split Zexmon back into his components and kill Armegeddemon, but he was able to corrupt Imperialdramon Dragon Mode into BlackImperialdramon Dragon Mode, who quickly Mode Changes into Fighter Mode and then Armageddon Mode, but they’re able to defeat him and revert him to Imperialdramon Dragon Mode.
One-shot sequel 2: An X-Antibody storyline for no good reason.
A surge in birth rates in various countries leads to the number of Digimon increasing faster than Yggdrasil can keep up with, so it decides to release the X-Program, ravaging the Digital World. After a while Veemon tells the others that the Zex in Zexmon stands for Zero-X, which he didn’t understand at the time but has realised might be able to counteract the X-Program, but they’d need Armageddemon to be able to fuse into Zexmon again. Veemon and Gomamon go into the Internet to try and find any left behind Kuramon, while Izzy and Yolei get in contact with some friends to see if any have Kuramon code that could be used. After a significant amount of searching, a Kuramon is found hiding on the Wikipedia article for Jellyfish, and after feeding it many, many spam emails, viruses, etc, it eventually digivolves to Armageddemon. It and Imperialdramon fuse to Zexmon, who opens a gate to the Digital World and uses X Delete to begin the process of removing the X-Program, but some of Yggdrasil’s Royal Knights come into conflict with them. Some of the other partners join Zexmon as backup, gaining X-Antibodies from exposure to the X-Program and conveniently strengthening them to let them rival the Royal Knights.
Notes:
In this timeline, after dying in Adventure Myotismon does nothing until the 02 kids go to the Digital World, hitching a ride with them, then over time creates Chimeramon and MarineChimeramon, until they die too and go to the Dark Area, create Millenniumon, who goes back three years. Myotismon goes with him but manages to arrive earlier and decides to possess Oikawa (and becomes the Myotismon in 02), while the Myotismon native to the timeline does nothing.
All the kids have regular Digivices, no D-3s here. No D-Terminals either, so they have to physically carry around the Digimentals once they get them near the end.
Daigo and Maki’s group went to the Digital World in ‘98 but got stuck there for ~7 years (~2 days in the Human World) after sealing Apocalymon, after finally being able to leave the Japanese government hires them as agents to deal with digital stuff.
The ‘99 kids went back to the Digital World to give up their Crests in both timelines, I know, I hate it too but I’m trying to at least somewhat stick to canon.
Zexmon is an early design for what eventually became Chaosmon. I don’t know what Zex is “meant” to stand for (like how Dexmon is short for Death-X-mon) so it’s Zero-X here. I also made up its “X Delete” attack as a counterpart to Omegamon X’s All Delete, and only deletes the X-Program and X-Antibodies instead of everything.
BlackImperialdramon Armageddon Mode has a sword based on Megiddramon (Megiddo Blade) instead of Paladin Mode’s Omega Blade.
How each Demon Lord dies: Barbamon dies by having his staff destroyed by Imperialdramon’s Positron Laser then being torn apart by his claws, Lilithmon dies by getting run through by Valkyriemon’s Fenrir Sword, being frozen and shattering, Leviamon dies by having his mouth forced open by Vikemon and his internals getting frozen by an Arctic Blizzard, Daemon dies by being so overloaded with holy power from Seraphimon and Holydramon that GranKuwagamon’s Dimension Scissor tears right through him and releases Devimon’s data.
Chimeramon was a Mega in Anode/Cathode Tamer and it and MarineChimeramon are the final bosses here so it’s at least kinda justified making them Megas.
Arachnemon, Mummymon and BlackWarGreymon don’t exist :(.
LadyDevimon has Vilemon minions, SkullSatamon has Ogremon minions, and MarineDevimon has Gesomon minions.
Instead of Jogressing to Perfect, the 02 kids will receive new/replacement Crests, with Davis, Yolei and Cody having “dual Crests” (one Crest with a divide down the middle displaying half of each Crest symbol) assigned the same way as the Digimentals in 02.
Armour Digivolution will not be used until the very end (for GoldVeedramon and Kongoumon), and instead the Digimentals are used as a power source to Jogress to Mega (replacing Gatomon’s Holy Ring because she never loses it), partnering with the Adventure kids who also get replacement Crests and using the Digimental corresponding to the older kid’s Crest. (Davis and Tai, Ken and Izzy, Yolei and Sora, Cody and Joe, TK and Matt, Kari and Mimi). Using the wrong Digimental causes a Dark Digivolution.
The original five DigiDestined also had dual Crests assigned the same way as the 02 kids (Daigo Courage/Friendship, Maki Kindness, Zhuqiaomon boy Love/Sincerity, Xuanwumon girl Knowledge/Reliability, Qinglongmon boy Hope/Light).
If you know Bionicle, Myotismon in this story is meant to be like Makuta Teridax in the 2007 storyline: a previous main villain stuck as a formless ghost who can possess others, will occasionally help the protagonists against another enemy if it also serves a purpose to himself, eventually comes back stronger than ever.
I have no plans for the Digimentals of Hope, Light, Kindness, Darkness, Tenacity or Pride.
I may update this later, but for now this is pretty much everything.