This has just been updated and edited; the overall story has not really changed. Hope you enjoy!
I don't own digimon, I don't own the characters. This is my first Digimon fic, so my first Kekari fic. I love them :)
Kari was sitting in class staring out the window.
'I wonder what she's thinking about' TK thought. "What's wrong?" TK whispered. She didn't answer. She was lost in her thoughts.
'Why can't he like me? I know he likes Yolei. You can tell by the way he looks at her. I just want him to like me back… love. Love me back. I know, everyone says I should be with TK. We are "destined to be" but I don't feel it. I love Ken. Without him I can't be happy.' Kari was thinking. She didn't even notice her sad thoughts were leading her away. Away to the dark ocean. She started hearing the waves splash around her.
"KARI!" TK whispered loudly, pulling her back. She looked at him.
"Yeah?" she replied.
"You were almost gone to the dark ocean again! What's wrong with you today?"
"Be quiet TK!" the teacher yelled.
The bell rang. It was the end of the day. Kari ran out of class. TK tried to run after her but he couldn't find her. On the way home, he ran into Tai, and asked what was wrong with Kari. He said he didn't know but he'd ask her when he got home.
Kari wasn't home.
Tai was now worried. He called TK, "Kari isn't here! I don't know where she is! Gatomon has no idea either!"
"Oh no!"
"Do you have any idea where she is?"
"Well today in class…" TK whispered.
"TODAY IN CLASS WHAT?" Tai yelled into the phone.
"I think she started to get carried to the dark ocean..."
"Oh no. Not again... Let's hope not." Tai sighed. "I'll call the others and see if they know anything. Meet here ASAP. "
Meanwhile, Kari wondered what was happening. She was running down the hall because she didn't want to talk to TK. Then she was here. The dark ocean. She felt like she'd never be happy again. The dark water splashing upon her.
"Well if it isn't the keeper of light. Seems no matter how much light you have there will always be dark." A voice laughed from behind her. She looked around and saw to her amazement none other than the Kaiser.
"Ken... But... You're not... What's going on?" Kari was so confused.
"Sorry, I'm not your precious Ken. I'm the Kaiser. Sure I came from Ken, I look like Ken, even sound like Ken, but remember, I'm supposed to be the one! The one that rules these worlds. The one that lives, instead of Ken! If you're wondering how I survived, I didn't just go away. He threw me out. I was a power within him, and when he threw me out I wound up here. I gathered enough energy to take form. This was the only form I knew how to take." He said, waving his hand down to show the emperor's outfit. "I know why you're here. Precious Ken doesn't love you does he? Maybe you could make him jealous. I have always wanted a Kaiserin. Would you consider being mine? I mean come on; I'm basically Ken, just slightly more inclined to taking over the world."
"NO! I'd never be with you! I can't be evil." Kari screamed at him.
"I never said you had to be evil. But you can't deny there is darkness inside of you. You'd never be here at the dark ocean if you didn't. You could come with me, we can go to the digital world, and you could rule it with me. Also, think about it this way, we can stop any other people from taking over the digital world, because we'd be taking it over. So in a way, we are still saving it. You'd get me. I came from Ken, I'm basically him. Isn't that what you wanted in the first place?" the Kaiser hissed.
"I guess it could work. Though, everyone will think you kidnapped me..." Kari said quietly.
"Well, we could just tell them the truth," He suggested.
"I can't tell them the truth! Ken can't know I like him. He already has Yolei who has liked him for years. I know he hasn't started dating her yet, but I've heard from people at school that he is going to ask her out... As long as he's happy with her."
"So… kidnap it is. You could just tell them that you want to be here and not why, but that's your choice. Don't worry, I'll put a dark ring on you or something, but it won't be active, you will just have to act like it is."
"What about Gatomon?"
"We can get her if you like but first, let's get into the digital world" The Kaiser said, slightly laughing, as he took Kari's hand as she used to digivice to open a portal to the digital world.
"Ok, now that everyone is here, does anyone have any idea where Kari is, or if she's in the dark ocean, why she would be there?" Tai asked, worriedly.
"She's either in the dark ocean or the digital world. I'm sure of that. I can feel it. It's like there was darkness everywhere, but now it's starting to go away…It's a weird feeling." Gatomon said.
"Ok, but why would she be in the dark ocean? Was there something calling to her again, or was she depressed about something?" TK asked looking at Gatomon.
She looked down. "She might be depressed."
"Why?" Yolei asked.
"I'm not sure I can say..." Gatomon said sadly looking away.
"Hey guys," Izzy said, looking up from his computer. "It appears that Kari has just entered the digital world."
"Let's go get her then!" Davis yelled.
"This place is a mess. It'll take a lot of work to clean up. Maybe we should just build a new base," Kari said.
"No, this place already has all the equipment. I'll just use some magic and it'll be good as new." The Kaiser said laughing.
"Magic? How did you get magic?" Kari inquired.
"When my I left Ken's body, there was a lot of power. After I formed a body, there was left over power… I've learned I can tap into this power. I just call it magic. I haven't really used it in the Digital World, but I want to try. If I can use it, it will make things a lot easier to take over the world than when I was in Ken's body."
"Wow..." Kari said as Kaiser used this magic to fix some stuff up, and everything seemed a whole lot brighter.
A few minutes later, the Kaiser looked toward Kari, "Well, now we have to decide... If you are my Kaiserin, do you want your own room, or stay with me in my room?"
"Well, why don't I have my own room, and we'll see what happens later?" Kari said quietly. This is all new to her, she's on the other side, the bad side, but she gets the Kaiser... So, she basically has Ken, right? 'Maybe this will be good for me,' Kari thought 'I'm always the good one; I never get to be bad. This could be my chance to be bad.'
"So where is she?" Davis asked Izzy.
"It looks like her signal is coming from over there," Izzy said pointing forward. "Let's go!"
They ran for a while and they saw the Kaiser's base.
"I really should have destroyed that..." Ken said to Wormmmon.
"According to my laptop… Kari is inside." Izzy told the group.
"WHY WOULD SHE BE IN HERE?" Tai yelled.
"I don't know Tai, but calm down, we will find her." Matt told Tai as he put his hand on Tai's shoulder.
"My Kaiserin, your friends are here; A lot earlier than expected. What do you want to do with them?" The Kaiser said as he looked at the screens.
"Well, why don't you go out and tell them how you are still here, and get Gatomon for me please."
"Ok. I'll be back shortly."
He walked out of the base, and yelled, "Hey, I'm not attacking anything; I'm not doing anything wrong yet, so please leave me alone!"
"You! But….how? I got rid of you!" Ken yelled to the Kaiser.
"What is going on? WHERE IS KARI!?" Tai yelled at the Kaiser.
"I didn't go away. Ken threw me out of his body, I didn't just disappear. I was power within him, and when he threw me out I was in the dark ocean. I got enough energy to make a body." The Kaiser said. "About your… what was her name?" he acted like he didn't really care about her to try to trick them, "Kari? Don't worry about her, she's in good hands. She's mine now, so you might as well leave us alone. Oh yeah, Gatomon, come with me."
Gatomon ran into the base to find Kari.
"I'm not letting you keep her!" TK yelled.
"GIVE ME MY SISTER BACK NOW!" Tai screamed.
"She'll come back to you when and if she wants to." The Kaiser said and with that, he walked into the base.
"Gatomon!" Kari squealed when she saw her cat digimon.
"We're here to rescue you!" Gatomon ran up to Kari and hugged her.
Kari's face dropped, she started crying.
"What's wrong Kari; don't you want us to rescue you?"
"I don't know. When I went to the dark ocean, the Kaiser was there and he said I could be his Kaiserin. He is pretty much Ken. Just a little evil, maybe. I don't think he is all evil though. He hasn't locked me up. He's been pretty nice to me and we were talking earlier... He said us taking over, would prevent anyone terrible from taking over."
"But Kari! The Kaiser is terrible!"
"How do you know?!"
"What's gotten into you Kari?"
She started crying again. "I'm so sick of being good. I'm always the good one. Good grades, perfect in everything. Can't I be bad sometimes? Can't I mess up once and a while?"
"I'm sorry Kari. If this is what you want to do, I'll be here for you."
"Thank you Gatomon... But they are going to rescue me; I'll be stuck back at home being good all the time."
"We'll think of something," Gatomon said confused at the change in her digidestined partner.
"Let's go get him!" Tai yelled at the others as he ran into the base after the Kaiser.
The others ran after him. By the time they got there, Tai was beating the Kaiser to a pulp.
"Tai!" Matt pulled him off the Kaiser. "I know, he doesn't deserve to live, but Kari wouldn't want him to die like this."
"How do you know what she wants?" Tai yelled at Matt.
"I vote we kill him." Ken said.
"I don't think you know your sister too well Tai. She wants to be here." The Kaiser coughed on the ground. Tai got out of Matt's reach and went and punched the Kaiser so hard, the Kaiser fell over again and passed out.
"Let's go get Kari," TK said.
They started walking down the hall. "Kari!" They all yelled.
A door opened. "Hey guys," Kari said quietly.
"You're not locked up!" Yolei yelled hugging Kari.
"I knew I'd find you!" Davis laughed.
Tai pushed Yolei off of Kari. "You're ok, right?"
"Yes, of course I am."
"Let's get out of here." Matt said.
"Uh..."
"What Izzy?" Cody looked back at him.
"I just got a message from Genaii."
"What does it say?" TK asked.
"Well… it says they always analyze what and who comes into the digital world. When Kari and the Kaiser came back from the Dark Ocean, if the Kaiser was truly evil, it would have shown up as dark energy entering, but it didn't. It was just regular. So Genai thinks the Kaiser might have been just energy, both dark and light energy from Ken, and so he's more like a clone."
"So he's not evil? Then why did he kidnap Kari?" Davis asked.
"Maybe she does want to be here like the Kaiser said." Patamon said flying up into TK's arms.
"Kari, why would you want to be here?" Tai said turning around to where his sister should have been. "KARI!"
"Where did she go?" Yolei asked.
"Gatomon is gone too," Hawkmon realized.
Tai started running down the hall looking in every room. "What did you do to her?" He screamed pushing down the Kaiser. Everyone filed into the computer room.
"I didn't do anything. She came in here, I had just woken up, there was a bright light, I was better and she passed out, so I put her up here on the table."
"I don't trust you" Tai replied.
"This is really weird Ken," Wormmon said.
"I know, I don't like it," his human replied. He already has taken a long time to get over what he did; he didn't need this reminder staring him in the face as well, especially if he is going to hurt his friends. He walked over to Izzy. "Can't we just kill the clone?"
"I don't know if there is any connection to you and him. It could kill you if we kill him. I'm just not sure yet."
A small cough came from the girl on the table, "Gatomon?"
"Yes Kari?"
"I just had the weirdest dream," she said, still in a sleepy blur.
"Kari, it wasn't a dream," Tai walked up and hugged his sister. She started to cry again.
"Shhh. It's ok. We are going to get you out of here."
"I think we just need to all go home and rest and come back tomorrow to figure this all out," Izzy concluded.
"Ok, what about him?" Cody said pointing at the Kaiser who was sitting on the floor with his head against his knees.
"I guess he just has to stay here."
"Do we need someone to watch him?" Davis asked.
"I'll stay." Ken and Kari said at the same time. Kari had finally quit crying and was looking down at the floor.
"Kari, you need to go home and rest, I don't want you to get hurt or sick." Tai told her.
"Ok Tai," She said, giving up. "I'm going to go outside and get some fresh air. Come on Gatomon." She walked out of the room.
"I don't think anyone really needs to watch him. It's just one night," Izzy told the group.
"I love how you are talking to me like I'm not even here." The Kaiser said cruelly, looking up. "I think I can stay here alone. It's not like I haven't before." He looked at Ken.
"See you tomorrow then," Izzy said to him as they all left the room.
They all walked outside and noticed Kari wasn't there, "Oh no, not again," a few of them murmured.
"Where does her D3 say she is?" Matt asked.
"Her D3 is in the base…" Izzy said quietly.
"What? I thought she was coming outside." Tai said worried.
"I'll go in and find her." Ken finally said.
He walked into the base. "Kari!"
"She's not here," The Kaiser said walking out into the hall.
"Where is she then? Her D3 is here!"
"Yes, it is. It must have fallen out of her pocket when she passed out."
"I'll take it then. Do you have any idea where she could be?"
"No, she's probably upset though, she may have ended up in the Dark Ocean again."
"Why was she there in the first place?"
"I don't think it's your business until she tells you," The Kaiser responded coolly.
"She told you. You're kind of me," Ken prodded.
"It would be easier if you could just let her tell you like she told me. Well, she didn't tell me in the first place, but I was in the Dark Ocean with her, I knew why she was upset. So I was there to help her. But then you all came and destroyed that. Believe it or not, she wants to be here."
"Well, I don't believe you," Ken answered not trusting his clone. He has dealt with enough with the Kaiser; he just wanted this to end.
After a moment of silence the Kaiser wondered out loud, "If we are the same person, I wonder if you can read my mind..."
"I could try I guess, but would that help me find Kari?"
"I don't think it would really stop you from finding her."
"This is all still too weird." Ken said after thinking for a minute.
"Ken?" Wormmon said coming into the room.
"Yes?" Both Ken and The Kaiser said.
Wormmon looked at the Kaiser in fear then looked at the real Ken. "Did you find Kari?"
"Her D3 is here. She isn't though," Ken said quietly.
"Give me your hand," The Kaiser said to Ken.
"Ok..." Ken did, even though he felt sketchy about the whole situation.
A light flashed between them, The Kaiser saw what Ken had been through since throwing him out. Ken saw the scene of Kari in the Dark Ocean.
"She…" Ken stuttered once he let go of the Kaiser's hand. "loves me."
"And you... We... Love her back." The Kaiser concluded.
"That's why she was here with you. She thought I loved Yolei."
"Exactly."
"We need to go tell Tai that Kari isn't here," Wormmon said in the entrance of the door confused about what just happened.
"Ok, Wormmon," Ken said.
"Can I help you look for her?" The Kaiser said, "I know you probably don't trust me still."
"After that, I trust you as much as I trust myself. You are me. Even if this is a little weird."
"I know you were here first, so I do understand if you have to get rid of me. I thought I was evil like before but I'm not. I'm just another you who was misunderstood."
"We won't get rid of you. At least not yet anyway," Ken replied walking out of the room.
"Hey where is Kari?" TK yelled when Ken, his clone and Wormmon walked out of the base.
"She's not here. Her D3 is." Ken answered.
"Why is he out here?" Tai said looking at the Kaiser.
"It's ok Tai; he's going to help us look for Kari. We have an understanding. If you trust me, you can trust him."
"It's getting dark. Maybe we should go home and get some rest." Yolei said.
"I agree." Cody replied.
"I'm not leaving until I find Kari." Tai said.
"Me either." TK agreed.
"Why don't some of us go home and rest. And some stay here. Then in the morning if we haven't found her, those who go home tonight will come back. We need someone to cover for us anyway," Izzy said, "Who wants to stay?"
"Me," Ken, Tai, TK, and the Kaiser all said.
"I'll stay too I guess to watch TK and make sure Tai doesn't go too crazy," Matt laughed.
"Ok, the rest of us will go back to my house, make a plan to cover for them. And I'll find out more about this clone thing," Izzy said.
They left, leaving Matt, Tai, TK, Ken and the Kaiser standing outside the base.
"Well, let's go!" Tai yelled running off.
"Hey wait a second Tai. I wonder if I could get the cameras around the digital world working again," Ken said.
"I'm already ahead of you." The Kaiser said. "Come on."
"How did you fix everything up so quickly?" Ken answered.
"Magic," The Kaiser said as he winked.
"Huh?" TK said.
The Kaiser touched Ken's shoulder. A light appeared as Ken saw the past, what Kaiser had told Kari about having this extra power.
"Oh, wow," Ken said as the Kaiser took his hand off of Ken's shoulder.
"What was that?" Tai asked.
"Well, we've found we can read each other's minds if we can touch each other."
"This is getting weirder and weirder," Matt concluded.
They went into the base and turned on the computers and the screens.
"Let's see just where she is," The Kaiser said sitting in his chair.
"I don't like being back here," Wormmon said jumping up onto the arm of the chair.
"At least we are on the side of good instead of evil this time," Ken said from behind them leaning against the chair.
Tai looked at the screens. TK and Matt glanced at each other.
After about an hour, all the screens gone through multiple times, they still hadn't seen her. "Is this all of the digital world?" Tai asked hoping it wasn't.
"Unfortunately, yes," Wormmon said.
Ken touched the Kaiser's arm. 'She must be in the Dark Ocean.' He thought. 'We can get into the dark ocean, but only you and I can go, we don't have enough power to get them there and back.'
The Kaiser stood up.
"She's in the dark ocean, isn't she?" Tai asked them, knowing, "I hope she's ok. This is all my fault," he said blaming himself.
"No, it isn't your fault." Ken said.
"It's our fault." The Kaiser said, knowing the truth.
"So are we going to go to the Dark Ocean and get her?" TK asked.
"I can only get me and him through," The Kaiser replied sadly.
"Don't worry Tai, I'll bring her back." Ken said as he raised his arm focusing on dark energy. The portal opened and they went through leaving TK, Patamon, Wormmon, Matt and Tai.
"I wonder how it's his fault," Matt said.
"I don't know but I'm going to find out and beat the shit out of one of him," Tai replied frustrated.
"Don't worry Tai, Ken will bring her back," Wormmon jumped onto the table next to him.
Agumon and Gabumon showed up and helped keep their partners company during the wait.
"Where do you think she is?" Ken asked, arriving in the dark ocean.
"I don't know. Look everywhere," His clone replied. People in the dark ocean could sense each other and their feelings and thoughts, but only to a certain extent.
"Kari," they heard. It sounded like Gatomon. They looked around and saw her in the distance. They ran toward her and realized she was near a body. They ran faster.
"Gatomon!" Ken said.
"Is she alright?" The Kaiser asked.
"We were in the digital world, we were going to stay outside the base, but she wanted to walk. So we started to go toward the forest. She passed out again. I think she's getting sick again, because she feels like she has a fever. She needs her medicine. I don't know how we ended up here, but my guess is she must be having bad dreams. She keeps muttering things. I can't understand what she is saying though."
"I don't know how we'll get her out of here," The Kaiser said.
"We have to get her to her medicine," Ken answered. They knew she had to be thinking good thoughts to get her out of the dark ocean, but if she couldn't wake up because of being sick, they couldn't get her home.
They stood there thinking for a minute.
"I have an idea that might save her," The Kaiser said. He bent down and focused all his energy towards Kari. A light shot from him to her. He was healing her. He passed out, and started to break up into energy. The energy shot from the air into Ken.
"Ahhh!" He yelled falling to his knees. He then collapsed forward. A few minutes later, he got up. All of the clone's memories appeared into his mind, combining the two back together.
"Are you ok, Ken?" Gatomon asked.
"How is Kari?" He said not worrying about himself.
"She is still passed out and muttering but she doesn't have a fever any more. I think he… you, healed her."
"Good," He smiled. But he frowned again, "We can't go back until she is having good dreams, or she'll end up here again."
"Maybe you could talk to her in her sleep. Tai used to do that when she was really little. She's not responding to my voice though..." Gatomon said worried, hugging Kari's arm.
Ken kneeled down next to Kari and whispered in her ear, "I love you too."
The words must have got through to the unconscious Kari, because a portal opened next to them. Ken picked up Kari, and they went through the portal.
"Ken!" Wormmon jumped up and down.
"Kari!" Tai exclaimed.
"She's ok, just unconscious," Ken said to calm down her brother.
"Where is your clone?" TK asked.
"It's ok. He's gone."
"What if he comes back again?" Matt asked.
"I don't think he will."
"Guys, I'm beat. Let's just go home," Matt replied.
"It's the middle of the night though; I don't know where we could go. Our parents' think we are at other places," TK pointed out.
"Well, we could just stay here. I think he made Kari a room," Ken said referring to his other self. I know there's at least one other room, and maybe a few cots. I can sleep in the chair in the computer room."
"Thanks Ken," Matt said.
"It's the least I can do. I'm going to go put her in her room. Come on, Gatomon," Ken walked out of the room with the girl he loved in his arms. They got to her room and he set her in her bed and covered her up.
"Tai?" She said sleepily.
"No, it's Ken," he whispered.
Kari sat up and looked around. She looked sad and confused, "What is going on, what happened, where am I?"
"Shhh... It's ok. You left the base and went for a walk. You passed out. Apparently you were having really bad nightmares which caused you and Gatomon to end up in the Dark Ocean. The Kaiser and I came to the Dark Ocean to rescue you. You had a fever and were getting very sick, probably from all the stress of the day. He used all his power to heal you. Then I brought you back here. Tai, Matt, TK, you and I are staying in the base tonight. It's about 1 a.m. at home."
"This is all my fault. I caused a disaster and caused people to worry, like usual," She started sobbing.
"Shh... its ok. It is not your fault. It is my fault," Ken admitted.
"What do you mean?" she asked still looking down.
Ken lifted her chin. "I didn't tell you how I really felt. I thought you loved TK. You thought I loved Yolei, and that's why you ended up in the dark ocean. But I don't love Yolei. I love you," He softly pressed his lips to hers.
After the kiss, Ken blushed. "I love you too," Kari whispered.
"I better go get them somewhere to sleep; they'll wonder why I was in here so long." Ken said sadly, not wanting to leave.
"It's ok. We always have tomorrow," Kari finally said smiling.
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
Ken walked out of the room to find Tai standing there.
"Kari woke up," Ken said quietly.
"I know, I heard everything."
"Are you mad?"
"No, your clone died to save her. I know you would do the same. I trust you. Just please don't have any more clones, or go evil again, or something like that," He joked to lighten the mood.
"Thank you Tai," Ken smiled, laughing.
Ken and Kari always had the memory of the clone, who saved the day and brought them together.