Revenge of the Kaiser
Chapter Nine: A Glimpse of Light
Kaiser glanced over at Kari. There were spots of blood on the sheets around her from the incision into her neck. The bandages covered by her hair hid fresh stitches.
The spore was gone. The Kaiserin was no more.
Kaiser could barely feel the movement of the gray orb between his fingers; his entire body was nearly paralyzed with numbness. "What a waste," he mumbled, crushing the spore between his fingers. "What a god damn waste."
"At least she's alive," Blackwormmon whispered cautiously. "And she's looking better all the time."
"The spore was supposed to be full proof. How could it have failed? I need to come up with a new plan."
"What happened, exactly?" Tai demanded, disregarding the painful grunts being emitted as Joe and Izzy picked themselves up from the ground.
"Give us a second, won't you?" Joe complained, sitting on his knees and pulling away the blindfold. "We were just thrown off Airdramon's back."
"I don't have a second," Taichi returned, grabbing the torn collar of Joe's shirt and pulling him onto his feet. "Did you see her?"
Panicked, Joe pushed Tai away. He straightened his glasses, remaining silent.
"There's something wrong with her," Izzy answered delicately, afraid of Tai's reaction. "She's really sick. Matt seemed to know more about it, and he got himself thrown in the dungeon."
"What?" TK shouted, face paling.
"He told Kaiser to remove the spore or Kari was going to die, so Kaiser sent him away. Kaiser seemed know that Joe couldn't do anything and shipped us off as well. I'm sorry, but he didn't even really give us a chance to look at her. He pretty much just took what Matt said and threw us out."
"And Matt pissed him off enough to get sent to the dungeon," Joe added softly.
"Christ," TK whispered, rubbing his face with the heel of his palm. "We shouldn't have let him go…I should have gone."
"And be in the dungeon instead of him? That would be helpful."
"Shut up, Tai. He's my brother for God's sake!" TK shouted, falling onto his knees and grabbing the sides of his head with both hands.
"When the guardian of Hope falls into despair, there is no reaching him without the Light to guide him back," Cody whispered into his egg.
"Why is he suddenly all prophetic?" Davis demanded. "He's been babbling about protecting some stupid prize for the past few hours."
"Way to be sensitive, Davis," Yolei growled.
"Guys! Mimi responded to my e-mail! She says that she called Matt's dad; our parents have been freaking out but when they realized all of us were gone, they decided that it would be best to leave the cops out of it for a few days."
"Oh thank God,"
It felt as though her being consisted of lead weights. Her body was covered with a cold sweat that made her shiver. She felt as though she had died twice and been run over. Everything hurt. It took all of her energy to pull herself into a sitting position. Pausing for a moment, Kari let the rush of dizziness pass.
A knock on the door finally inspired Kari to slip off the bed. She needed to prepare herself to see him.
"Kari, are you awake, can I come in?" Relieved that the voice belonged to Blackwormmon, Kari opened the door for him. "Oh good, I was hoping you would be awake. How are you feeling?"
"Wonderful," Kari answered sarcastically, "like a whole new person." After pausing to appreciate the irony in her statement, Kari closed the door. "How long do I have until he comes?"
"Master is very upset about, well, you know, your body not accepting the spore anymore. He was in the lab trying to think of an alternative when I left to see you. I'm sure he'll be here soon, though, to check on you."
"Blackwormmon, why do you serve him?"
"Me?" Blackwormmon exclaimed, like the question must be a joke. "I would think it would be obvious. I was created to be loyal. I may be the dark version of Wormmon, but I basically am Wormmon. Kaiser made me that way because even though Wormmon was loyal to Ken, Master still formed an attachment to him, or to ruling over him, anyway."
Kari nodded, feeling bad for the digimon. But if Blackwormmon was made in Wormmon's image than he wasn't really evil.
Kari turned the lock on the door. "Blackwormmon, I'm going to escape." As the digimon's face turned to reflect his horror, Kari added "and you're going to come with me. If I left you here then Kaiser would use you as an outlet for his anger."
"You can't!" he shouted, shaking his head frantically, "besides, there's no way you'd get pass security."
"We're exiting through here. You can use one of your attacks to break the bars on windows, and then spin a web we can climb down."
"I can't agree to this."
"Blackwormmon, I know that you're not evil. I know that you won't allow me to stay here against my will, not to mention my friends stranded in the Digital World, not when you know you can help."
Silence settled between them.
"Let's get the bars off," he finally sighed.
It wasn't too difficult to get the bars off the window, but making a string of webbing strong enough for Kari to climb down was going to take some time. On top of that, Kari had made Blackwormmon attach Gatomon's egg to his back, slowing him down further. Kari paced anxiously, moving without purpose except for when she went to grab her D-3 from under her bed mattress.
Blackwormmon could see that Kari was still feeling very weak. He didn't fully understand why it had made her sick, but he was relieved that she was no longer forced to carry the spore in her body.
"Blackwormmon?"
"Yes?"
"Do you think that they'll forgive me?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I commanded Oblivomon to kill our digimon. How am I supposed to face them? How will I be able to face Gatomon?"
"No one is going to blame you for what happened. They'll just be happy that you're okay. Trust me."
Kari smiled, though still worried. "Thanks Blackwormmon."
It had been a few hours since Kaiser had entered his lab, but he had nothing to show for it. He needed to make something to make Kari love him again, until she could love him on her own. Something that wasn't going to feed off her life energy would also be helpful.
Kaiser didn't understand how he had allowed the spore plan to fail. He should have tested the liquid darkness, rather than assuming it would work because of its properties. He felt incompetent, and feeling incompetent made him angry.
Stepping away from the computer, Kaiser decided to cool off and begin again with a clear mind. Besides, he wanted to see how Kari was doing. Blackwormmon was supposed to report back to him, but the little idiot probably got distracted.
He made his way up to Kari's room, passing the time by trying to think of other dark materials within the Digital World that may work. Nothing came to mind.
Kaiser tried turning the knob without bothering to knock first, but found that it would not turn. "Kari?" he called out, "are you awake?"
Feeling a sudden rush of unease, a feeling that, as of late, meant something bad was happening. "Kari!" he shouted, banging against the door, "open up!"
Panic overpowered Kari. Kaiser was already outside the door and the rope was nowhere near ready. "What do we do?" she whispered, eyes wide with fear.
"I don't know. That door is going to open soon, even if it means that Kaiser knocks it down."
Another feeling suddenly replaced Kari's fear: concern. But it wasn't for herself. It was for…
Cody?
She didn't understand why, but Kari knew that Cody needed help and she could give it. She needed to escape first, though.
Kaiser continued screaming her name, and the door began to shake with the force of a digimon ramming into it.
"Can you shoot your web out in midair?"
"Yes, but it wouldn't be strong enough to hold us both."
"You have to go alone," Kari answered, looking determined. She pushed her D-3 into his arms, causing a light to pass from her hands into it, and lifted him up.
The door came down as she threw Blackwormmon out of the window. He flailed for a few seconds before shooting out his web and catching the side of the building. "Go! Find the others," she shouted as Kaiser pulled her away from the window.
Her body was in no state to be tossed around. She collapsed on the ground and tears began to run down her face. She'd been so close to freedom, if only she'd had more time; if only he hadn't come back…
Kaiser!
She looked up, terrified, and retreated from him. Kaiser was seething. His body visibly shook from his anger.
"Did you think you could escape?" he demanded, grabbing onto her arms and wrenching her off the ground. Do you think I wouldn't find you? Do you think you could take Blackwormmon and leave me?"
She was too afraid to speak. Kaiser didn't have any restraint without Ken's conscious fighting him. She could only imagine what he was going to do.
Kaiser clamped painfully down on Kari's wrist and began to drag her out of the room. "Where are we going," she demanded, trying to pry his fingers off her.
"I can't leave you in here," Kaiser answered calmly. He pulled her along a corridor she wasn't familiar with and opened one of the many rooms. "You'll stay in here so you can think about how stupid trying escape was." The room had no windows, no light source, only long bench along one of the walls.
"Don't worry, my sweet," Kaiser spoke, pulling Kari's face close to his, "I'm not going to hurt you. You wanted to see your friends, I understand." The statement made Kari afraid. "I'll send someone to say hello for you. One of your friends is going to die today."
Ignoring Kari's cries and protests, Kaiser threw her into the room and slammed the door behind her. He headed towards the Control Room, deciding which digimon to send.
Someone had to pay for this.
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I only have one comment. I don't want it over my head that I didn't finish my fanfics. So rest assured I will finish, just bear with me. There are three chapters left.
