Title: Sidesteps
Characters: Ken, Daisuke
Word Count: 1,798/86,950||Chapters: 1/47
Genre: Drama||Rated: PG
Challenges: Diversity Writing: divergent/alternate timelines: K6, under 2000 wpc; Three-Sided Box: 47 chapters, 1650-1850 wpc; Epic Masterclass, #10, The Wild Card; Epic Big Bang
Notes: This begins in episode 8 of 02. The soccer game took place and then the Chosen vanishing. And now, things change.
Summary: Daisuke offended the Digimon Kaiser's pride that day on the soccer field. The Digimon Kaiser's not going to let that slide. Only it's not going to be Bakemon and Deltamon that Daisuke will have to deal with. It's something far worse: the Digimon Kaiser himself, in all of his fury and all of his determination to humiliate Daisuke in return, in the most intense way he can imagine.

Daisuke slipped and fell, measuring his length in the sand for a few moments before he scrambled to his feet, spat out the dirt, and kept going. V-mon kept up the whole way, as worried as Daisuke himself. Neither one spared a breath for anything other than running.

Sweat, half from exertion and half from the cold terror that refused to release him, trickled down into the small of his back. His legs ached, his stomach churned relentlessly. But he dared not stop.

Then they crossed some kind of border and the sand vanished, replaced by an endless stretch of rock. Daisuke pitched to a halt, hands on his knees, gulping down all the air that he could.

Where is he? His shout echoed back from the rocks moments later. "Kaiser! Where are you?"

"That eager to see me? I like that." The voice came from above. Daisuke jerked his head around in as many directions as he could, until the flap of a cape caught his eye. There, on the edge of a cliff far too close, stood the Digimon Kaiser.

"I don't want to see you!" Daisuke burst out, fists clenched. "I want to see my friends!"

Kaiser tilted his head as if truly considering the words. "And if I refuse to show them, what will you do?" His lips twisted into that far too familiar smirk. "Yell at me some more?"

Daisuke shifted, ready to jump on the Kaiser if it would get him his friends back. But he wasn't close enough and he wasn't even sure if he could get there anyway. "What do you want?"

"The entire Digital World at my feet. But all of that in due time." Kaiser stared down at Daisuke with a deep hunger visible despite the distance between them and the visor he wore. "Let's start with you at my feet."

Daisuke knew he was exhausted from the run here. That had to be why his ears deceived him. "What?"

Kaiser's voice could've put a glacier to shame. "You. On your knees to me. Now."

"No, Daisuke!" V-mon tried to protest but Daisuke already crumbled, his legs trembling, heart racing. "Daisuke!"

Daisuke didn't move. If it would help his friends, he'd stay where he was as long as Kaiser wanted.

"Very good. Look up."

Daisuke raised his head and saw Kaiser pointing to the left. When his gaze followed, he saw eight lozenge shaped crystals, and his heart forgot how to beat, his breath stuttering in his lungs.

Within each of those crystals rested one of his friends or their partners. All of them looked as if they'd been in the middle of running when they were caught, frozen in one position.

"Guys..." Daisuke whispered, starting to get up.

He froze at the whip of Kaiser's voice. "I didn't tell you that you could get up. Stay on your knees. In fact, bury your face in the dirt."

Daisuke didn't mention there wasn't any dirt there. He just shoved his face down and waited for what he'd have to do to get them freed.

"Kaiser..." V-mon snarled. "Let them go!"

That earned them a nasty laugh. "Not a chance. Now, Digimon, be quiet. Say another word and you'll be locked up in amber, too."

Blood drained from Daisuke's face. "You heard him, V-mon." He hated to support Kaiser in any way but he wasn't losing V-mon. I need to get them out of those things. But I don't know how!

Footsteps echoed, the ring of boots drawing closer. Then Kaiser's gloved hand gripped onto Daisuke's chin and jerked his head up. This close, Daisuke could see the sick joy in his barely visible eyes.

"You'll do anything I say as long as I have them, won't you?" Kaiser's smile didn't get any better up close.

Daisuke wanted to be defiant. He wanted to resist and fight back and win. He tensed, not much more than a breath, and Kaiser smacked him down without hesitation.

"Remember, Motomiya Daisuke, your friends are in my hands. There's nothing you can do about that."

"Not now," Daisuke admitted, not caring how much it pained him to say it. "But..."

Kaiser hit again, harder this time, sending Daisuke falling. Before he could get up, one firm booted foot resting on Daisuke's rib cage, grinding downward.

"No. Make any attempts to let them go and they die." Kaiser bit off the words with foul delight. "Now, I asked a question. So long as I have them, you'll do as I instruct, won't you?"

Daisuke struggled to catch his breath. Having the Kaiser standing on him didn't help at all. He gasped out something he hoped made sense, but if it did, Kaiser didn't like it. He ground his foot harder.

"I want a nice, clear answer. Now."

The idea of hating someone so much hadn't ever occurred to Daisuke. But the more the Kaiser did, the more he did. He swallowed, not letting himself move. Kaiser would get smack happy if he did.

"Yes," he finally managed. Never had that word sounded worse.

Kaiser made what Daisuke thought was a happy noise. Then his smile twisted yet again. "Say it again, but this time call me Kaiser-sama."

The noise Daisuke made absolutely wasn't happy. "No!" He wouldn't say it, no matter what Kaiser did.

Kaiser seized hold of the back of V-mon's neck and threw him toward the amber prisons. Daisuke tried to lurch forward and grab him, but the hits he'd already taken and the Kaiser's leg crunching into his stomach, sending him folding over, proved too much.

He crumpled to his knees, no more breath to do anything that wasn't watch as V-mon fell next to the amber-imprisoned Hikari. His partner lay there for a few moments, as confused and out of breath as Daisuke himself.

Then a great golden flash blinded Daisuke and when he could see again, even with just what breath he'd recovered, Daisuke tried to move closer.

V-mon lay in between Hikari and Iori, as sealed as they were. Silent. Unmoving.

"As long as I have them, you'll do as I say. Won't you, Daisuke?"

Daisuke swallowed, more of him hurting than he'd ever endured before. "Yes, Kaiser-sama." Hot tears stung at his eyes. V-mon...

"Good boy. You're learning already. Now let's go." Kaiser gestured and Daisuke started to pull himself to his feet, almost expecting Kaiser to demand that he crawl. From the way the other glanced over his shoulder, a haunting little smile on his lips, he wouldn't have been surprised at all.

But Kaiser said nothing of the sort, only leading Daisuke around to where an AirDramon waited. Perched on the AirDramon was that little Digimon that followed the Kaiser around. He peered at them as they got closer, and Daisuke essayed a small wave. The little bit he'd seen sort of led him to believe that little guy didn't like what Kaiser was doing.

Daisuke couldn't imagine what else the Kaiser might want from him or even why he was so upset in the first place. Everything had been so normal: at least this new kind of normal, where he crossed over to a different world after school, and put all of his effort into stopping the Kaiser from conquering a different world.

"Get on." Kaiser snapped, the order breaking through Daisuke's thoughts. Daisuke tightened his fists, reminded himself quite thoroughly that he didn't have a lot of options, and followed the Kaiser onto the AirDramon.

"What is it that you want from me?" Daisuke asked, hoping for some kind of an answer that made a lot more sense.

Kaiser smiled. Daisuke wished that he didn't.

"I'll explain everything once we're at our destination. But I also wouldn't expect to return to the human world for quite some time if I were you."

Fear traced tiny fingers down Daisuke's spine. "What do you mean?" He needed to get home. He needed to make certain the others got home. Koushirou-san would be watching, of course, and he probably already knew about what happened…

No. He hadn't been there. He might be there by now, or soon, but he hadn't been there when they left. It had just been the five of them.

His fingers twitched for a second. Sooner or later, he'd get a message, wanting to know where they were and what was going on.

The AirDramon had already risen up and was coursing through the air somewhere. Daisuke started to reach for his D-Terminal, already thinking about what he was going to tell whoever asked.

Kaiser cleared his throat. Daisuke jerked up, staring at him, a flush of unexpected guilt staining his cheeks. Kaiser stood there, holding one hand out.

"Hand over those things." There wasn't any hint that he would allow Daisuke to do anything but that.

"Why?" Daisuke wasn't going to get in the habit of obeying the Kaiser if he could stop himself. Though the thought of the Chosen and their partners, his partner, lurked in the back of his mind…

Kaiser's hand extended a little more. "Because I said so. You won't need them anymore anyway. You don't have a partner and you don't have any more friends."

"I have friends! Taichi-sempai -" Daisuke faltered; would Daisuke still consider him a friend with Hikari-chan gone like that and Daisuke not able to save her? And Yamato-san…

Would any of them still like him when he couldn't do anything to save them? He'd already lost V-mon. What else was going to go wrong?

Kaiser still kept that haunting smile. He said nothing else, but the cold reality set itself hard in Daisuke's thoughts: the Chosen were the Kaiser's prisoners. If there was any chance of freeing them, then he would have to do what the Kaiser wanted. At least for now.

Slowly, very reluctantly, Daisuke pulled the D-3 and D-Terminal out of his pocket and extended them toward the Kaiser. Kaiser put them away into some pocket of his own before he reached out to touch the side of Daisuke's face. Daisuke shuddered, tilting his head back for a brief moment.

Kaiser's hand tightened, keeping Daisuke's head where he wanted it.

"The more you do what I tell you, the more you'll enjoy your life with me. Of course, I'm going to enjoy this no matter what. If you don't do what I tell you to do, you will be punished severely. You're not going to argue with me about obeying your orders. If you behave enough in the way that I want you to, I may even reward you."

He leaned closer, and Daisuke realized his eyes were a shimmering, ice-cold violet. "Be a very good boy and I may even release your friends – eventually. But you are mine."

To Be Continued

Notes: Weekly updates for as long as I can manage them. And I am cackling evilly at my Evil Plans.