By Ria
Kari stared silently at the Digimon Kaiser a.k.a. Ken. She couldn't believe it. He was the bad guy, their worst enemy? Now that she knew, it was so hard to believe that the sweet, obedient guy they'd seen on TV was really the ruthless, evil person who was trying to destroy the Digital World and enslave all of the Digimon. It seemed almost impossible.
As she stared up at him, she frowned. She remembered the first time she'd seen Ken in their world, on Earth. He'd seemed so familiar. Too familiar, as if she'd seen him before. That was impossible of course, she'd never seen him before. He went to a different school to them and she'd never seen him on TV before she had with Davis and the others. But still.
How do I feel I know you from somewhere? she wondered silently, staring at him. How do I feel I've met you before? As she stared at him harder, something clicked and she gasped softly, hoping no one had heard her.
For she knew now where she had seen Ken before. Knew why he was so familiar. She hadn't imagined it, she had really met him before. Had talked to him before. As she closed her eyes, memory engulfed her . . .
She bit her lip as she tried to not let the pain show through. She was determined to be able to go to the Park today, she had been looking forward to it so much. But her Mom had said her stomach ache would have been gone. But it wasn't. But if she told her Mom her stomach hurt, she wouldn't leave her go outside. She'd be stuck inside yet again. No, she was going outside. She was going to the Park. "Ready honey?" her Mom called, popping her head around the doorway. She beamed at her encouragingly. Kari put on a brave face. "Yep Mom!" she answered, walking up to her. She smiled, and inwardly tensed as another jolt of pain shot through her. No! she thought angrily. I won't let this beat me! The Park was crowded, as it always was on sunny days in the summer. Usually Tai would have been with her, but he had soccer practise, so it was her Mom with her today. Kari didn't like to admit it, but it felt strange for her to be there. It was always Tai! Stopping, Kari realised she was faced with a problem. There was so way she'd be able to run around with this much pain. But then, what was she to do? If she didn't play, her Mom would know something was up, and would ask her what was wrong. And she'd eventually get the truth from her. Kari turned to look at her. She was sitting down at a bench, talking to another woman. She sighed and turned around again. Gazing around the Park, her eyes fell on a boy sitting on his own on another bench under some trees. Maybe if she made a new friend . . .? Walking over to him, she sat down beside him. "Hello," she said, smiling at him. "Why are you sitting all alone?" The boy looked up at her, startled. He had really big eyes, blue too. "Huh?" he asked, staring at her. "I said, 'Why are you sitting all alone here?' " "Oh well, I don't have any friends here," he answered, shrugging, looking sort of annoyed. "Not much use playing if you don't have any friends to play with, is there?" he asked, glancing at her. "I guess not," she replied uncertainly. No one had put it like that before. Come to think of it, she had never heard anyone saying they had no friends before either. "Why aren't you playing?" he asked, looking like he was just saying it to fill in the silence. "Oh that." Kari shifted uneasily. "Well I have a stomach ache, but I really wanted to come here, so I didn't tell my Mom. You can't exactly run when you're sick, can you?" He has nice hair, she thought. Black with purple highlights. It suits him. "You came here, even when you were sick?" he asked in disbelief. She nodded. "I never thought anyone'd want to come here so desperately," he said, obviously thinking she was mad to have done that. "I was made come here. I hate coming here," he added angrily. "Why?!" Kari asked in surprise. A kid who hated coming to the Park? That was a new one. "My brother comes here as well, and it's so hard, seeing him with all of his friends," he explained. "He has a load of them, while I have no one. My parents are always at me to talk to people, but I can't, as I know they don't like me." "Well, you have me," she said slowly. "I'm your friend." "You?" he asked in surprise. "You want to be my friend?" He couldn't believe it. Someone wanted to be his friend! She nodded. "I don't know why they don't want to be your friend. You seem all right to me!" she joked, smiling at him. He couldn't help himself, he smiled back. "But -" "I get sick a lot, just like today. I have to spend a lot of time inside - that was why I was so eager to come here today by the way -" He nodded. "- and it makes making friends hard sometimes, because they can't understand why I miss school so much," she explained. "I like making friends though." "I wouldn't know," he replied dryly. "People don't exactly give me a chance." She laughed. "But . . . but you don't know what - what happens -" He broke off, blushing uncomfortably. "What happens?" she asked. "Well . . . sometimes I hear - things. Voices, telling me what to do. And I see monsters too," he added in a low voice. "And normal people aren't supposed to see and hear things like that." "Well then, I'm not normal either, I guess," she answered, smiling gently. "Me and my brother, we see monsters outside our home a lot. Fighting and stuff. Other kids saw them too, so we weren't the only ones. One of the monsters even helped us, so I don't think they're all that bad." He stared at her, noting she had really nice eyes. Brown with a touch of amber. Nice to look at. "You see them too?" he asked in amazement, looking at her with wide blue eyes. "And you don't think they're scary?" "Well, I didn't say that!" she laughed. "I do think they're scary, but the one that protected us, I don't think he was scary." He looked away. "The ones I've seen are scary. They don't want to help me, I know that." He bit his lip. "Hey!" she said, making him look back to her. "I'm sure it'll work out okay. That's what Yamato always says, he knows my brother Tai. He says things always work out right in the end." "I don't know," he said slowly. But she looked straight at him and he sighed. "Well . . . maybe they will." He smiled slightly as she grinned at him, before they both looked over to see Mrs. Kamiya signalling at them. "That's my Mom," Kari sighed, getting up. "I have to go." Looking back at him, she added, "See you again, right?" He nodded. "Right." She had walked a few steps away, when she stopped suddenly. Turning around, she yelled, "Hey! What's your name?" "Ken!" he called back. "What's yours?" "Kari!" she answered loudly, waving at him, before turning and hurrying to her mother.
Kari blinked, as the memory finished. Ken, she thought, staring at him. Oh Ken, it didn't work out, did it? They got you in the end, didn't they, the voices? You did what they told you to do, didn't you? She looked up at him, feeling tears fall from her eyes. She hurriedly wiped them away, before any of the others saw them.
She looked up to see him staring down at her. She stared back, silently willing him with her eyes to remember. To remember her, the girl he befriended at the Park, his first real friend. The girl who told him everything would be all right, but in the end it wasn't. The girl who liked him just because he was himself, not some Digimon Kaiser, or a genius.
And as she watched, something behind those purple sunglasses changed, and he really looked at her. She saw something flicker behind those sunglasses and knew he was remembering the same thing she had remembered. But what did he think of it? Was he remembering her the same way as she had been?
He froze for one minute, before pointing straight at her. "You," he said. "In there." He jerked his thumb behind his shoulder at two large doors leading to another room. "Now."
"Hey, what are you doing?!" T.K. yelled, looking furious. "You can't just take her!"
The Digimon Kaiser glared at him. "You have absolutely no authority to speak to me at all, so just shut up!" T.K. quietened, but not after giving him a killer stare.
"Don't yell at him Ken," Kari said quietly, already walking. "I'm going. No Gatomon," she told the small Digimon, stopping. "Stay here, I'll be fine."
"Are you sure?" the feline asked her, clearly unwilling to let her go in there on her own.
Kari nodded. "I'm sure. I don't think he'll hurt me."
"Well . . . if you're sure," the Digimon said reluctantly. "But if he does anything to you, he'll have me to deal with!"
"And us!" T.K. added, with a very determined-looking Patamon beside him.
"And don't forget us!" Davis chorused, with Yolei and Cody beside him, as well as their Digimon. "We're not going to let him hurt you!"
Kari smiled at them. "Thanks guys," she said softly. "But I really don't think he'll hurt me."
"How can you be sure?" Yolei asked, glancing at him. "I mean, he's the guy that's been terrorising us for all this time!"
"I just . . . know." I can't tell them I've met him before! "I'll see you after guys," she added, beginning to walk again.
"Are you quite done conversing now?" Ken drawled, sarcasm dripping from his voice, as she passed him.
Kari glared at him. Now that she knew who he really was, he didn't seem to scare her that much anymore. It was obvious really, that it had been him. It would have taken a lot of thinking to come up with the Evil Rings and everything else, and Ken was a genius. It was all beginning to fit now. "Quite!" she hissed in reply.
"Very well," he answered, smirking, as he followed her.
She flinched as the doors slammed shut after them. She discovered that there was light there after all, dim light but light all the same. She took a few deep breaths to calm her thundering heart and then turned to face him.
The Digimon Kaiser.
Ken.
Her friend.
Or maybe her old friend.