Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandom: Digimon Adventure 02
Title: Perfect Revenge
Romance: Ken x Daisuke/Daisuke x Ken
Word Count: 4,738||Status: One-shot
Genre: Romance, Drama||Rated: PG
Challenge: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, section G04, a oneshot; Written for the One Ship Boot Camp, prompt #1, beloved; Written for the First Kiss Challenge; Written for the Monthly Restrict #11: find a random word generator & get a word from there. This word should appear every 500 words; word is capture; Written for the Word Counts Set Boot Camp, #38, 4,738; Written for Digimon OTP Week on Tumblr, Day #1, prompt firsts
Notes: This takes place some years post defeat of BelialVamdemon but does not include the epilogue.
Summary: Just because Ken doesn't want to beat himself up anymore about what happened as the Kaiser, doesn't mean that everyone else in the Digital World feels the same way about things. And they'll use anyone they can to get their revenge on him.
"So," Daisuke said, lolling his head so he could look more closely at Ken, "come here often?"
Ken closed his eyes and leaned his head back, taking in a long and deep breath. He'd lost track of all the breaths he'd taken over the years whenever Daisuke decided to go out of his way to relax a situation. Especially since his attempts tended to make whatever situation it was worse instead of better.
Sometimes Ken thought Daisuke knew it would do that and did whatever he had in mind anyway. He'd never asked. He didn't think that he wanted to know.
"No, this is my first time," he replied, knowing without looking that Daisuke would be waiting for his answer. "I try not to get captured by Digimon wanting my hide tanned for a rug that often."
And yet it had happened now. More than that, Daisuke had been captured by them, and that put him in a worse mood than himself being caught did. He completely understood why these Digimon didn't like him. But why bring Daisuke into it?
A Gotsumon stepped in front of the two of them, glaring as if Ken's very existence offended him. Ken wouldn't have been surprised. Even now, his existence offended a lot of Digimon. Not all of them believed that he'd seen the error of his ways. Most of them stayed out of the way, convinced that he'd show the truth if they just let him alone long enough.
These Digimon weren't those. These Digimon wanted him gone and gone now.
"Digimon Kaiser." Gotsumon spat the words out as if the taste of them made him sick. "You've put off paying for your crimes for too long."
Ken cast his eyes upward. He'd paid for years. He would pay for the rest of his life. He didn't want to relive every moment and suffer for it, but he'd done all that he could to protect the Digital World since realizing how wrong he'd been. Even knowing that they didn't believe that made hearing this more than a little difficult. It almost didn't seem real.
"Are you kidding?" Daisuke stared at the Digimon as he spoke. "Don't you guys get the newspapers out here? Ken's been helping us with the Digital World for years now!"
"You, be quiet!" Gotsumon balled up a fist and shook it toward Daisuke. "You're really close to him, aren't you? Yeah, we've seen you with him before."
Daisuke snorted. "Of course you have. Now do you think you could make some sense? I've got work to do this afternoon and I don't want to be late with it."
Daisuke. Ken could not help the small smile that touched his lips at that. No matter how old he got or how tall Daisuke grew, he would always be Daisuke. That was part of the reason that he…
Well, maybe now wasn't the right time to say that. Perhaps when they weren't being threatened by angry Digimon.
"We're going to make a lot of sense. More sense than he does, I bet." Gotsumon glared at Ken again. "Probably a lot more sense than you do, too!" Now he transferred the glare to Daisuke, who sent it right back to him, with interest.
Ken let out a long sigh. He really wanted this over with. He had no intentions of dying or whatever else they had in mind that they thought would make up for whatever he'd done to them. But getting out of here and staying far away would make for a very good end to the day. Even if it wasn't actually noon yet.
"What did I do to you?" That would be a good place to start. The more he thought on it, the more he thought Gotsumon kind of looked familiar, anyway. He couldn't pin down where he would've seen this one but that was more because he'd seen a lot of Gotsumon, during his time as the Kaiser and afterward. Even a couple of the foreign Chosen Children had Gotsumon for partners.
"You don't even remember, do you?" Gotsumon snarled, the sound echoed by some of the other Digimon who stood not that far off. Some of them were busy making certain that V-mon and Wormmon didn't get in there and rescue their partners, which was a full time job in and of itself. Wormmon especially looked worried, and for much the same reasons that Ken himself was.
Ken sighed again. "It's been a long time." Seven years, in fact. Seven years since they'd defeated BelialVamdemon and somewhat more than that since his own defeat. While he remembered that he'd been the Kaiser and the actions that he'd taken and everything he'd felt, what he couldn't remember, what he'd never even tried to remember so he could get some sleep at night were the faces of all the Digimon that he'd captured, enslaved, hurt, reformatted, and in general tortured during that time.
That handful of words earned him something else now: a severe punch in the stomach from Gotsumon. Being hit by a living rock with a grudge behind the blow blew the air out of his lungs, his eyes widening in shock and pain.
"Hey!" Daisuke strained at the chains that kept him bound to the pole behind him. "What was that for?"
"He didn't remember." Gotsumon's tone rang furious. "He made me and my brothers and my best friend fight each other and he doesn't remember."
Ken fought to pull in some air. Now that he'd been reminded – painfully – he could remember an arena where he'd gathered up several Digimon to fight one another. It hadn't been one of his major entertain – projects, not something he'd done very often, mostly because around then had been when the Chosen had become just annoying enough to require more of his attention. But at least now he could remember it.
"I'm sorry," he gasped, pulling himself back up as much as he could. "I know it doesn't excuse anything. But I am."
This time Gotsumon backhanded him and Ken knew he'd have a huge bruise there before the sun set. If he lived to see the sun set. He suddenly wasn't very certain that he would. Not with the way Gotsumon alone kept staring at him. When he factored in the way all of those other Digimon kept looking at him, he knew he wouldn't survive until then. Not unless a miracle happened and those were in short supply.
"You're right that it doesn't excuse anything!" Gotsumon declared. "We don't want excuses. We want revenge! We want you to know what we felt like!"
"Helpless!" The word came from the gathered Digimon. "Being used for someone else's enjoyment!" Another cry came up. "The people you care about being turned on you!"
Ken's eyes fell almost at once on Wormmon. Surely they didn't… they couldn't...they wouldn't!
Gotsumon laughed, his gaze following Ken's. "Oh, no. We're not like you. We're not going to hurt one of our own. He'll thank us once this is over, though. You probably hurt him more than anyone else."
Ken wasn't going to deny that. He'd never put a Ring or Spiral on Wormmon, but only because Wormmon had never fought against him until the end. He'd hurt him in other ways, ones that still had him ache inside when he thought about them.
"I'll never thank you for hurting Ken-chan!" Wormmon shouted, wriggling as hard as he could, but to no avail. Ken smiled at him.
"Thanks, Wormmon." He couldn't bring himself to say that it would be all right. He'd kind of gotten out of the habit of lying to himself.
From the depths of the crowd of Digimon came another Digimon, and if his hands hadn't been chained, Ken would've rubbed his eyes, trying to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
"Tailmon?" It couldn't be. Daisuke stared as much as Ken did and both of them shook their heads in a mutual and vain attempt to clear them.
The feline Digimon who stood there sniffed primly. "No. I'm BlackTailmon. Don't compare me to her."
Ken sagged back in his restraints. Now that he could get a better look, he did see the differences. This one was a black feline, like a miniature panther, and lacked Tailmon's Holy Ring. But aside from that, anyone could have been forgiven for mistaking one for the other.
"I don't think I've ever seen you before," he said, racking his brain as hard as he could. What worried him more than that was what she wanted here in the first place.
BlackTailmon examined her claws for a few moments before looking back at them. "Oh, you haven't. I met Gotsumon a while ago and offered him my services when he explained what he wanted to do once he captured both of you."
Ken did not like the sound of that. It didn't get any better when Gotsumon spoke again.
"You made us fight each other. So that's what we're going to do to you."
"What?" Ken had no idea of what they were talking about. There weren't any more Evil Rings or Spirals and even if there had been, they didn't work on humans.
Well, he didn't think they did. He'd never actually tested that, since he'd never thought for a moment that he should have. All a game, that's all it was, and why take short cuts when the long way offered more fun?
Somehow, he didn't think that reasoning would apply to Gotsumon or BlackTailmon, much less to the other Digimon who looked positively eager for some kind of fight to get started. Wormmon and V-mon both looked worried, and that made him even more worried.
BlackTailmon strolled her way over to stand in front of Daisuke. Three other Digimon, all PicoDevimon, hovered in front of him, their Pico Darts at the ready as an Apemon untied Daisuke.
"Stay where you are, human," Gotsumon warned Daisuke, waving a hand at the PicoDevimon. "Their poison might not kill a human, but we don't know that it won't, either."
Ken could not help a wince. He'd never bothered to investigate just how poisonous those darts could be. Now he wished he had, just so he'd know how real the threat was.
They thought it was real enough, and even if it hadn't been, with Ken and their partners still trapped, Daisuke stayed where he was told. Ken could read the tension all over him and knew that Daisuke didn't like it in the slightest.
BlackTailmon jumped up, grabbed onto Daisuke's jacket collar, and stared into his eyes. Her own began to glow a rich shade of gold as she did. Daisuke tried to pull back, but the combination of BlackTailmon on his chest, Apemon behind him, and the PicoDevimon threatening him kept him from going very far.
Another few moments and Daisuke's eyes began to fade to the same gold that BlackTailmon's gleamed, and all of the tension sagged out of him. Then he focused on BlackTailmon and when he spoke, nothing but cold terror gripped Ken's heart.
"What do you want me to do?"
It was the voice of someone who didn't think for himself. Who couldn't think for himself. It wasn't Daisuke's voice at all.
She brainwashed him. Ken's stomach churned and whirled and he started to pull at his bonds. "Daisuke! Let him go!" How could they do this to him?
The reason why hung in the back of his mind already, but he didn't want to think about it. It explained why they'd both been targets for capture. It would give Ken more than a few nightmares, if they survived this.
Gotsumon laughed a short and bitter laugh. "Did you ever let any of our people go? My brother died fighting for you, and I haven't been able to find his egg yet. This is all your fault. You're the only one you can blame for this."
Ken would've argued, would've brought up Vamdemon and Archnemon and anything else that would've given him an excuse. But he'd never liked using excuses. They always sounded so weak. Even if he'd wanted to, he knew that no one here would listen.
Then, to make it all worse, Apemon reached over and released his bonds. Ken dropped down to his knees, breathing hard, and refused to look up at Daisuke. He didn't want to see those beautiful brown eyes staring at him the way he knew they would be. Daisuke could and did get angry at people and had been angry at Ken many times. But he couldn't stand to see blankness there. Daisuke should never, ever, be blank.
Gotsumon grabbed onto his shoulder and threw Ken back up to his feet. "Figured it out yet? I bet you have, since you think you're so smart. You're going to fight your buddy there."
Ken still refused to look at Daisuke. Looking at Gotsumon wasn't much better, but at least he wasn't blank. "For how long?" He didn't want to do it at all. But anything he could ask delayed the inevitable for just a few more moments.
"How long did you make us fight?" Gotsumon pretended to think about it. "That's right. Until we couldn't move anymore. I think that's about right."
Ken could see V-mon and Wormmon still. V-mon kept calling Daisuke's name, trying to get his attention, but that did nothing. Ken couldn't see Daisuke, but he knew the other wasn't moving. Not yet.
"Fight him," BlackTailmon said and Ken's stomach plummeted even farther. "Keep on fighting him, no matter what he does or says, until I tell you to stop. Do you understand?"
For a second or two, Ken almost wished that he'd put a Ring or Spiral on Daisuke. Perhaps hearing that flat voice, without a shred of Daisuke's usual joy in it, before would've prepared him for hearing it now. In the deepest depths of his mind, though, he didn't think that it would. Nothing could have prepared him for the abrupt agreement that fell from Daisuke's lips. It was as if someone had captured his worse nightmare and distilled it into living form.
Even worse, nothing could've prepared him for the way Daisuke hit him as hard as he could, sending him skittering against the ring of observers. He didn't have a chance to get back to his feet, since all of them that could reach him grabbed on and threw him back toward Daisuke. Ken stumbled, trying to get his feet under him in time, and failed, his feet slipping on damp grass and sending him careening into Daisuke.
Against his wishes, now he looked right at his unwanted opponent. Daisuke had always been strong and years of sports had only improved him over the years. What still hurt the most, clawing deep into Ken's heart and soul, was that look of blank obedience and the way that Daisuke balled up his fists for his next hit.
"I'm not going to fight you, Daisuke!" He at least had that choice. He knew it hadn't been like that when the Digimon he'd enslaved fought, but they couldn't make him fight.
And he didn't think they would. It wasn't about Ken fighting. It was about Daisuke, one of the people he cared for most in the world, fighting him, and Ken not being able to stop it.
"And why not? Would it hurt too much?" Gotsumon snapped. "Not that it matters. Fight him or don't. I don't care. Either way, you get to feel what we felt. What I felt. Do you like it any better now?"
No, Ken would've said, if he'd had the chance. If Daisuke hadn't punched him again, harder than before, still with those horrendously blank eyes, the sight of which made Ken want to scream.
He stumbled back again, but this time managed to keep himself from falling. Ken rested his hands on his knees, still refusing to look at Daisuke unless he had to.
"Daisuke," he murmured, not knowing if the other could hear him right now. "I said I'm not going to fight you and I'm not. We fought each other enough when we were kids. We don't have to do it now."
All that he got for his pains were a lot of Digimon laughing at him, V-mon and Wormmon yelling Daisuke's name, and Daisuke coming in for another hit, every bit as hard as the ones before it. This time Ken didn't let it connect, but moved out of the way.
He didn't want to fight Daisuke, but by no means was he going to let himself get beaten to a pulp.
Those few Digimon who weren't laughing cheered instead, though Ken couldn't tell if they were cheering Daisuke on or mocking his own attempts to save himself. Ken wiped the back of his hand against his nose and wasn't surprised to see a small streak of blood. Daisuke's first hit had taken him there.
And Daisuke was all set for another one. Ken dodged out of the way again, trying to think of what he could do. There had to be something. His tools had been effective up until they'd been destroyed, but BlackTailmon's power couldn't be broken like that. Or if it could, it meant destroying her, and he wouldn't do that. There had to be another way. The hard part was finding that other way before he couldn't run anymore.
He lost track of how many times he swerved away from Daisuke and how many times he couldn't get out of the way in time and Daisuke hit him in the chest, arms, shoulders, stomach, anywhere that he could reach. Every hit hurt worse than the one before it and Ken had no idea of how much longer he could go on. He still refused to take a single blow toward Daisuke, even when the other presented him with perfect openings to do so. He'd made up his mind not to fight back once he'd seen what BlackTailmon and Gotsumon had in mind.
"Someone grab him!" The shout came from the depths of the crowd. "Hold him still! Let him see what it's like to not be able to fight back!"
Ken would've said that he wouldn't – and wasn't – fighting back even if he could but someone captured his arms and pulled them behind him before forcing him down onto his knees. He breathed a fraction harder, trying to get his head sorted out, but before he stood a real chance at doing that, in came Daisuke and his pounding fists.
I have to stop this… have to stop him...her...
Thinking wasn't easy when every few seconds a fresh buffet of pain flowered somewhere on him. In those few moments Daisuke's eyes caught Ken's, they remained as blank as ever.
He's stronger than this. I know he's in there. He has to be. Ken did not dare to think otherwise. He just had to find a way that would release Daisuke from this mental prison.
Shock. That was what was needed, a good strong shock that would get right through whatever BlackTailmon did to him. It had to be something true as well; Daisuke would brush off most lies, since he tended to tell bigger ones when he found himself caught up in a moment.
One truth blazed into Ken's mind just as he moved his head away from an incoming hit. It might work. It had to work, because he had almost no energy left to avoid these hits or to try to get away.
He breathed in sharply and threw himself forward, squirming out of the reaching hands, and rolled over to stand near V-mon and Wormmon.
"Daisuke!" His voice broke on the name, half because of what he was about to say and half because of how much he hurt from the beating he'd endured. "Daisuke, listen to me!"
"He's not going to," BlackTailmon insisted, swishing her tail in amusement. "I've captured his mind with my power and the only person he listens to now is me. I might even keep him once we're done with you. Cats have humans for servants in your world, don't they? I could use someone to brush me and bring me my food. Wouldn't he be good at it?"
"Not going to happen," Ken rasped out, staring at Daisuke. "Daisuke, I need you to listen to me. Just this once. Then you can do whatever you want, even if it's beat me up. Or kill me." Because of this didn't work, Daisuke would most likely do just that.
Against all hope, Daisuke stopped moving closer and stared at Ken. The faintest of life sparked in those empty depths. Ken did not waste a moment's breath.
"Daisuke, I love you." He chose his words with care; there were many ways to have said what he just did. He deliberately chose words that he knew would cause the most impact, that would've had Daisuke staring at him in disbelief under other circumstances. Of course, under other circumstances he might not have used those words at all, but this was a special situation.
He breathed in another stuttering breath and kept going. "I love you. I don't know when I started to love you like this, but I don't want to stop, either. No matter what." He started to slide to the ground. He didn't have the strength to keep himself on his feet anymore. He didn't know if he'd said the right things or if he'd said them in time.
The right time might've been before they'd been captured at all. When they'd been safe in their own world and the idea of being beaten by the one that he loved was something best left to nightmares he would refuse to think about when not in the depths of them. But he'd said it now, at least, and if it hadn't been enough, then it just hadn't been.
Daisuke came closer to him. Ken could not look up. That blankness would haunt his dreams if he did, and he didn't think he had so many dreams coming that he wanted to give any of them to it.
One strong arm looped around his shoulders and a callused hand lifted his head up. Daisuke looked back at him, his eyes open and warm and alive as they'd always been: and furious beyond words, but a fury that wasn't directed toward him at all.
"Ken, I think we need to get out of here and go talk. At home. You up for it?"
Ken's heart sang in a way that would've put the Teenage Wolves to shame. He wrapped one arm around Daisuke and held him as close as possible. "You have no idea."
Another drawn in breath, one that pulled in life and hope and love and everything else that gave a Chosen Child strength, no matter their age.
V-mon and Wormmon had only been held by their captors, their evolution prevented by the lack of their D-3s and the fact their partners were too far away. But those D-3s were held by Digimon far too close now and their partners were right there with them. V-mon didn't need to be told what to do once he saw Daisuke was in control of his own mind again. Instead, he smashed one blue fist into the Digimon hold Daisuke's D-3 and snatched it back, running for Daisuke and Ken.
Wormmon didn't have hands to hit with, but he had webbing, and he'd had a good meal that morning, which meant he had a lot of webbing, and in very short order, he also was on his way back to his partner, holding the black D-3 in his mouth.
Ken offered up thanks to every deity he could think of in the few seconds that it took for Wormmon to evolve to Stingmon and Stingmon to join with XV-mon for Paildramon. Nothing else would get them out of there fast enough, especially with how battered he already was. Thankfully, evolution only took those few seconds, otherwise, they would've been at risk of capture once again. Ken had had more than enough of that for one day.
They would all have to be careful in that part of the Digital World from now on. Maybe in even more parts, until these Digimon could be convinced that he wasn't their enemy and that he ...well, at least convinced that beating him to death wasn't going to accomplish what they wanted. That could take a while.
He remained curled up next to Daisuke and only after they'd made it back through the portal and Daisuke sat next to him on the couch tending to all of the bruises, cuts, scrapes, and injuries the fight left behind did he really say anything else.
"Are you all right, Daisuke?"
Daisuke stopped in mid-swab and stared at Ken as if he'd never seen the other before in his entire life. "Which one of us is sitting here looking like he should probably go to the doctor?"
"This is nothing," Ken said with a shrug. "You know I heal up fast. I'll be back on my feet in a week or so." He rested one hand on Daisuke's arm. "But she … your mind..."
"It was really weird," Daisuke said, brow furrowed. "I didn't want to listen to her. I mean, beat you up? And you weren't fighting back?" He shuddered, a few drops of iodine falling from the swab. "But I couldn't not do it. It was like my body wasn't listening to me anymore."
Ken shifted around enough to lean his head a bit more on Daisuke. "I'm sorry. And I'm glad that you heard me."
"Oh, yeah, about that." Daisuke tilted his head down to look at Ken. "Did you really mean that or were you just trying to break me out of that?"
Ken suspected that Daisuke wasn't as completely unruffled by what happened as he wanted to appear. But they could discuss that another time. Now was for something else. "I don't say things I don't mean." He'd focused himself on telling the truth for years now. Lying to himself only made things worse. Lying to others was far worse.
Daisuke hmmed at that, before he reached down, captured Ken's chin with the tips of his fingers, and pressed their lips together. It was a sloppy, unpracticed, and fun kind of kiss, everything that he'd imagined one with Daisuke would be like, in those rare moments when he dared to imagine such a thing at all.
"I love you, too," Daisuke murmured, staring into Ken's eyes with his own, so warm, so full of the life that BlackTailmon's spell denied them. In the back of Ken's thoughts he knew that they needed to tell the others what had happened and warn them about what could come in the future. But the front of his mind remained focused only one how good it felt to have said those words, to hear Daisuke say them back, and to lean inward and kiss Daisuke one more time, tasting life on their lips, no matter how broken and bleeding his own were.
Daisuke moved back, reaching for the iodine and swab again. "You're going to have to rest for a couple of days, I bet. That's what the doctors always say when this kind of thing happens. Bedrest. I'll take care of you." A twinkle gleamed bright in those eyes and Ken chuckled at the sight of it.
"All right." He knew he wouldn't win if he tried to fight this fight. He would just tell his parents he was staying with Daisuke for a few days. It would hardly be the first time either of them had stayed with the other.
It wasn't at all how he'd envisioned telling Daisuke how he felt or how they would have their first kiss. He'd thought something a little less painful would be involved, perhaps with moonlight and candles. The more he considered it, the more this felt right anyway. Because when had anything else in their lives been anything other than shocking and what they didn't expect?
If this was the first kiss, then what in the world will the first date be like? Part of him didn't want to know.
Part of him couldn't wait to find out.
Notes: First time Ken said he loved Daisuke and first kiss. Also the first time I've written Daisuke being brainwashed but not by Ken. ;)