Obelisk
9. clarity doesn't always tell

It was empty: too empty. They'd been used to their digimon partners by their side, used to the constant colour in the Digital World, and the bustle of crowds in the human one. They were used to their own voices, and the voices of their friends and companions, and the voices of their enemies shouting threats that would never come into fruition and they'd be able to shout that - all those sentiments - right back and with even greater force.

It was an entirely different thing, fighting an invisible, intangible enemy. Quite a different thing searching for a phantom that only existed in lost memories. Ken still winced as a current of pain shot through his head every time they heard the name… but they'd found nothing else to personify him. And they didn't fight Gennai either.

All they found were their own digimon, immobile stones. And their energy drained and so did their hope. They searched anyway, because the bonds they shared with their partners went even beyond that. They searched but they didn't really know where to search so it was pointless.

It was Hikari's idea to travel again, or specifically for Ken to travel. They went with him anyway, because Ken was the only lead they had and their friend. They went to all the places the Digimon Kaiser had left scars. They went to the tattered remnants of his memories from before that time, from his first adventure in the digital world.

They wandered through a desert from the place where the fortress fell to a place that looked exactly the same to all of them except for Ken. Ken who saw the scene of his lingering nightmares in more clarity than ever before, but learned nothing new to share.