This story takes place during , The Crest of Kindness' Episode of 02

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon.

The battle between Kimeramon and Magnamon raged as the Digidestined caught up with the Digimon Kaiser. They were all in his base, hoping to defeat him once and for all.

Wormmon watched helplessly as his master scowled at the digidestined. The small one, Cody spoke next. He took a step forward and said,

"Yeah! Do you think you're doctor Frankenstein or something? Creating creatures just for your own cruel pleasure! Kimeramon is not the monster, Ken, YOU are!"
The kaiser known as Ken growled at this. "I don't care!" he screamed. Wormmon was shocked at this. His Ken-Chan didn't care if he was a monster or not.

In the midst of the battle between the digimon above them, Kimeramon stopped and looked to Ken, confusing everyone.

"So..." the creature hissed. "You don't care if your a monster like me..."

Ken gulped. He didn't care if the digidestined saw him scared, he wanted to know what was going on. This wasn't Kimeramon talking...It was a darkness much beyond Kimeramon, more darker than Ken had ever known.

No one spoke as Kimeramon cackled. Without warning, a large cloud of black energy went flying towards Ken. It swept around the Emperor's waist and began to choke him with darkness.

"Ken!" cried Wormmon in panic.

The digidestined took a few steps back.

The darkness cloud continued to swirl around Ken, who struggled, hoping to get out of its grip. Tears came to Ken's eyes. he couldn't help. He was frightened beyond belief. What was going to happen to him? He screamed when the darkness became even stronger.

That was when the darkness began ripping into his skin. Ken finally hunched over, grapping his chest in pain, the darkness still around him.

Meanwhile, the digidestined were debating whether or not to help him.

"What should we do?" asked TK.

"Well we can't just leave him here. He's in pain" remarked Kari.

"But look at him! We can't even get close!" retorted Cody.

"I say we stay put and help however we can! What about you Yolei? Yolei?" said Davis, turning to Yolei.

Yolei was silent, her eyes almost covered with tears. "He's...changing..." she choked, watching ken.

Everyone turned their gazes to Ken, Wormmon at his side.

The others watched at Ken's hunched over form began to grow. Ken opened his eyes and looked at his hands, watching as claws emerged from underneath his black gloves. Ripping off his gloves, Ken winced when he saw his claws instead of hands.

Ken's hair then started growing longer, falling out of it's spiked look.
His body was growing taller and stronger. A sudden tingly feeling made Ken realize that he now had a long thin tail. Standing, Ken found that his emperor garb vanished, replaced with billowing black robes. He looked at the digidestined and saw that they now only came to his mid-chest. But suddenly being more stronger and taller had no effect on Ken. He didn't care. For when he looked down at his body he saw just how mismatched he looked. Another tingly feeling on his ears made Ken feel them. They were now pointy like an elves.

His hair turned black and now came down to his mid-back.

"Ken...?" spoke Wormmon softly at ken's feet, which were now bare and cold from the floor. His toe nails were also long and sharp.

"Well ken" spoke Cody. "It looks like you're finally the monster you always acted like."

Black pearly tears spilled out from Ken's eyes. Kimeramon laughed at the site of him.

"Now you know what's it like...Tell me, Ken, what does it feel like to be a monster?" chuckled the evil of Kimeramon.

Ken didn't answer. Magnamon did however, by attacking him while he was unprepared. Battle ensued once more.

Wormmon was extremely surprised when Ken lifted him up and held him in his arms tightly, almost hugging him.

"Oh Ken...I'm here...Everything's going to be okay" whispered the worm.

Pulling the black robes closer around his new body, ken began to run back up the spiraling stairs, Wormmon still in his arms.

"ken wait!" cried the digidestined, trying to follow them.

"Davis! You and the others had best get out of here! This place is going to come down any minute!" yelled Magnamon in a demanding voice.

"You got it!" replied Davis. The base gave a violent shake.

"He's right, this place isn't going to last much longer!" commented TK.

They began to run back down the staircase, the opposite direction in which Ken went. Everyone for Yolei that is. "But wait! We can't just leave Ken in here!"

Everyone faced Yolei, the base shaking more violently.

"Take that!" cried Magnamon, giving all his strength and defeating Kimeramon at last.

Kimeramon laughed before he died.

Magnamon turned to the kids and headed towards them. "Let's go! Now! before it's too late!"

Yolei didn't budge from her spot. "Please Yolei" begged Hawkmon at her heels. "Let us just go. Ken will be alright."

"No! I'm not leaving him!" With that she ran back up the stairs in hopes to catch up with Ken. Hawkmon followed her, hoping to bring her back to her senses.

"Yolei!" cried Kari.

"We've gotta get outta here! They'll be fine! Hawkmon is with her!" cried TK.

Without another thought, the others were grabbed by Magnamon, who flew them out of the base and into safety.

Ken ran. That was all he could do. Run. Run away from it all. Run away from the pain that was too much to bear.

"ken...Where are we going...This place is going to explode...we have to leave this place ken" whimpered Wormmon, still in Ken's arms.

"No..." replied Ken. Ken grabbed his throat in surprise. Even his voice was different. It was deeper. Black tear stains stained his cheeks as he ran into his control room. Wormmon leaped to the floor when he saw that Ken was going to drop him anyways.

Ken climbed into his throne chair, which was now a little too small for him. He didn't look right when he sat in it, as though he didn't belong in it.

'I don't belong anywhere' moaned Ken in his head.

Ken put his head in his hands and moaned, crying. The ignored the creaks and bangs the base was making. The room gave a violent shake. Ken paid no mind to it.

"ken...please...let's get out of here..." begged Wormmon, hanging onto ken's leg. Ken made a movement that looked like he was going to strike the worm upside the head, but he didn't.

"Sorry...I meant Master..." whispered Wormmon after a moment of silence between the two. Ken shook his head.

"Eek!" came a cry from in the hallway. Ken looked over at the door.

Yolei tripped as she walked up the remaining stairs. "Ouch! Ken! Ken are you in here?" she called into the darkened room.

"What are you doing here Inoue?" demanded ken. Wormmon couldn't help but smile. Maybe Yolei would be able to knock some sense into his Ken-Chan.

"Ken! I-I'm here to save you! I-I'm here to get you out of here! Now come on! This place is going to explode any minute!" she answered. Ken sighed.

"Haven't you seen me Inoue? I'm a freak!" Ken shot back.

"That's what this is about? Come on Ken! We can figure all this out someplace else!" Yolei then ran up to Ken and grabbed him by the arm. "WE haven't got time for this. Have your pity party someplace else!"

Ken was about to stand up when a large whoosh of dark energy whipped through the doors. The dark energy filled the room. Evil spirits flew around the two of them.

"So..."spoke an icy voice. "You want to help the boy do you...?"

Yolei didn't answer, she was too afraid. Ken on the other hand clutched his head.

"Leave me alone!" he cried to an unknown person or thing.

"If you want to help the boy so badly...then why don't we...gave you the same fate as him!" said the icy voice.

Ken's eyes dilated. He looked up at the darkness. "No! Don't curse her like you did me!"

"W-What do you mean?" Yolei asked, quivering with fear.

The darkness didn't reply, instead, only began to surround Yolei the same way it did Ken earlier.

"Stop it!" cried Ken. "Don't do this! I'm the one you want! Not her!" The darkness didn't listen, it only kept surrounding Yolei.

Hawkmon tried to get near but was pushed aside by the darkness, making him hit the wall. Hawkmon moaned in pain.

"Hawkmon!" cried Yolei in despair.

The same process that happened to Ken happened to Yolei, yet, right when she was about to start changing and growing, a green light stood in the darkness' way. Yolei opened her eyes to see her digivice protecting her. The darkness fled, leaving the two of them alone.

Yolei stood, with the startled help of Ken. Now that the darkness was gone, Ken could get near her. The base was still falling to pieces but they ignored it.

Yolei stood and looked at herself. The darkness had been unable to do anything severe to her. The only thing different was that her hair was black instead of lavender.

"You're awfully stupid Inoue, to have risked your life for me..." spoke ken softly.

Yolei looked at him. She then looked up, realizing for the first time just how much taller he was.

"Hey! You had better be grateful! I just risked my life for you!" she retorted.

"I never said I wasn't grateful now did I?" asked Ken mischievously. Yolei couldn't help but give a small smile.

"I suggest that now would be a wonderful time to get out of here" piped up Hawkmon.

Wormmon nodded. "Yes, you two can sort this out when we're in a safer place."

Yolei looked to ken, who still didn't look at all happy at the thought of leaving.

"Come on ken. We won't take you anywhere that's too public, how's that?" offered Yolei. After much debate within his head, ken reluctantly nodded, yes.

Without another moments' hesitance, the four of them ran out of the room, but not before ken wrapped himself tighter in his black robes and pulled up the hood he just realized he had on it.

"Do you think they are okay?" asked Kari, fidgeting in her spot between Davis and TK.

"It's hard to say Kari, it really is..." replied TK.

"Gee, you're a lotta help" scowled Davis when he saw Kari's pained expression.

TK scowled back at Davis. "Well what do you expect me to tell her. Oh, yeah, they're fine. I'm sure they're in their eating ice cream?" TK mocked.

Davis sneered and looked like he was going to retort when Cody broke in in from of them. "Stop it you two!" he yelled, his arms stretched out and keeping the one from the other. "This is no time to argue!"

"Look! It's them!" cried Kari suddenly. The boys stopped what they were doing to take a look.

Ken and Yolei were slowly making their way towards them. Ken had his hood up, making his black robes cover him completely. Yolei seemed to have him by the hand that was hidden underneath the robes.

"Yolei!" everyone cried. They ran towards each other, making Yolei lose her grip on Ken's hands. Kari and Yolei hugged.

Kari blinked as she was hugging her friend. She grabbed a lock of her friend's hair and looked at it, shocked. She let go of her friend. "Yolie...Your hair is black.

Yolei nodded. "I know...The darkness tried to do the same thing to me as it did to Ken" She took out her digivice. "But my digivice saved me."

Everyone then looked to Ken, who had his head down low.

"Hey ken, are you okay?" asked Davis as they watched ken pick up Wormmon and hold him close.

"Of course I'm not okay Motomiya. I was just transformed into a monster, do you think I'm okay?" sneered ken.

Cody scowled. "he was just asking you a question ken" he hissed.

ken flicked his new tail from side to side instead of replying to that.

"Wow man, talk about havin' a growth spurt huh?" joked Davis about ken's height. ken didn't reply, just petted Wormmon on the head without realizing it.

Ken just closed his eyes and stood there, creeping the digidestined out after a while. His face was neutral.

"ken? Are you okay?' asked Yolei. Ken shook his head no.

"I'm a monster Inoue...What part of that don't you understand" he hissed.

"Relax Ken, I'm sure there is some way we can help you" spoke Kari.

Ken didn't answer her. He just turned around and ran away in the opposite direction of his base.

"Ken! Wait!" cried Yolei. She was about to chase after him when Cody and TK caught hold of her sleeve.

"let him go Yolei" said TK.

"yeah, just look at what happened to you because of him. Your hair is now black!" inquired Cody. Yolei stopped struggled against the two of them. They were right. ken didn't want her help. She was just going to have to wait and see what happened and what Ken was going to do.

Ken was running once again. Once again he was running away from the didgidestined. That's all he did nowadays. "Ken...?" whimpered Wormmon.

"Shut up! Just shut up!" snarled Ken. Wormmon shivered as he continued to run by Ken's side.

Ken stopped dead in tracks. Something was not right. Something was different about this place. Ken looked around himself and saw that he was in a deserted part of the digital world. It looked like a waste land. The perfect place for him to live. No one to order him around...No one to look at him and make fun of the way he looked. No one to look at the hideous monster.

Ken had seen their faces. They hid their fear well, but Ken knew they had been afraid of him. Who wouldn't be? he was a human with a tail, claws and-

Ken felt his teeth to make sure. Yep, fangs. He had no idea what his face looked like because he didn't have a mirror or anything to look at himself with.

He looked down at Wormmon, who was staring at the ground in thought.

"Wormmon!" he said in a commanding voice. Wormmon flinched and looked up.

"Yes master?" he replied.

"W-What does my face look like? Does it look any different from before?" asked Ken. Wormmon was taken aback by this question, but answered it the best he could.

"Yes, it's slightly different" he began. Ken unwillingly flinched. Your eyes are black instead of blue, and your lips are a grayish color. Your deathly pale and...well, that's about it."

Ken nodded. Just what he needed. More things wrong with him.

Ken sat down on the ground, pulling his knees up to his chest. "What am I going to do Wormmon?" asked Ken. Wormmon shook his head, not knowing how to answer.

Ken played with the gray sand that covered the dreary wasteland childishly.

"I can't go back home...That's obvious enough...And I've failed. Failed at being the Digimon Emperor." he spoke.

Wormmon cocked his head to one side, looking up at Ken. "So does this mean I no longer have to call you master?" he asked stupidly. Ken glared at him.

"No! You will always call me master. Nothing has changed that!" sneered Ken, whacking the worm on the head.

Wormmon winced. "I-It's just that you had been so kind to me back there I was just wondering-"

"Wormmon, I was in a time of need. I was not thinking clearly" cut in Ken.

"And now you are?" said Wormmon with a hint of anger in his voice.

Ken shook his head. "No, I never have thought straight before."

"You did when you were small" pointed out the worm.

"Shut up! That was years ago! That Ken is dead! Gone! Never to return!" yelled ken.

Wormmon shook his head. "Not to me, you'll always be Ken Ichijouji to me..."

SLAP!

"Just shut up already! I'm not him anymore alright! Now...I'm a monster!" With that Ken buried his in his arms and knees, hiding from the world and hiding his black tears. Sobs wracked his body as the two sat there in the gray wasteland. Everything was gray. The only sign of life was the wind. That was the only thing moving in this dead place.

Ken looked up after minutes full of tears. He rested his chin on his arms which rested on his knees. Closing his eyes, Ken tried to think of something he could do now that he was this monster.

His tail thumped behind him as though it had a mind of its own. Ken could hardly remember he had one, it seemed so natural to him now that he had one. He flicked it back and forth on different directions without realizing it anymore.

A large explosion in the distance allowed them to know that his base finally fell to pieces. Base...Base...That was it...He needed a place to stay...Now that his base was gone...he had nowhere to go...No place to stay...No one would want a monster around.

he blinked several times as he thought this over in his head. He then stood, losing his balance a bit.

"Come on Wormmon...We're going to build ourselves a home" he hissed, starting to walk.

"How?" the worm asked. Ken stopped. He didn't know how...

A great gust of wind caught them by surprise, making Ken cover his face with his arms, the sand was so great.

When the wind calmed down Ken opened his eyes again and gasped. A woman, as tall as him was standing several feet away from them. She wore a red outfit, and a red hat and purple gloves. Her eyes were covered by purple sunglasses . She also had long white hair.

"What do you want? Who are you?" demanded Ken.

"I am the one who made you how you are" replied the woman. Ken scowled.

"Why did you do this to me then?" he demanded.

"I did it because you said yourself you didn't care if you were a monster or not" was the simple answer he received. Ken's eyes went wide.

"What?"

Flashback

"Kimeramon isn't the monster Ken! You are!" yelled Cody.

"I don't care!" cried Ken

End Flashback

Ken covered his mouth with his hands. "I really said that?" he whispered.

The woman nodded gleefully. "Yes ken. So really all I did was check to see if what you said was really true. And by the looks of it, you really didn't know what you were talking about when you had said it, now did you?"

Ken slowly shook his head. " I had no idea I was going to turned into one!" he snapped.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you to be careful what you say, it may just happen" she hissed.

"You still haven't answered my question though. Who are you?"

"Who? Little old me? Well, I am Arukenimon" she replied. "And I am here to tell you that you had better get used to being a monster because your going to be one for the rest of your life!"

Ken growled. "See, you even act like a monster. Growling like that and all" she teased.

Ken could feel the angry darkness begin to surround him and Arukenimon could see it too. "Now now. No need to be so uptight. I am here to help you..."

"How are you going to help me?" Ken asked through bared teeth.

Arukenimon smiled. "By giving you a place to live for the rest of your life."

Yolei sniffed as she walked into her room later that night. Her parents had not been at all too happy to see that her hair was black, but when she had gone to go and dye it back, the hairdresser said hat the dye wouldn't work and that her hair just remained black. Odd.

She laid down on her bed, Poromon asleep beside her. "I wonder what Ken is doing right now..."

"Why are you still thinking about him?" asked the little pink bird. Yolei turned her gaze over to her partner. She grumbled in annoyance form the question.

"Because I have a heart, unlike all of you! Sure he's done some nasty things in the past, but now he's in trouble and he needs our help. he's all alone" Yolei answered.

"Yes Yolei, but he has Wormmon with him" Poromon pointed out.

"I hate to break it to you Poromon, but that cute little bug is about as strong as a marshmallow" sighed Yolei. Poromon shook his head.