Revenge of the Kaiser
Chapter 11: Consequences
Kari stood leaning against the wall of the corridor, fingers pressing into her temples to dull the pain of a migraine. Inside her mind she was screaming, sobbing, pleading, but nothing reached to her exterior except pressure on her forehead. She felt sick for what had happened with Matt; disgusted with herself and the things she'd done. It was as though she was watching someone else moving her body, making her say and do things she never wanted to.
The protests, though shouted at the top of her lungs, went unacknowledged. Her goodness, her light, her very essence was being controlled completely by someone else.
She was trapped within her own body.
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"I still can't believe we didn't think to check the base again," Ken grumbled. "I should have known he was there."
TK snorted. "Yeah, no kidding."
Blackwormmon rolled his eyes. He didn't understand humans. They were all so complicated.
"TK, shut up," Yolei offered, seeing Ken's cast down face. "I didn't hear any bright ideas from you, either."
The group fell into silence; everyone ate a small breakfast of berries they had gathered the night before. Joe put Matt and his eggs in his medicine bag, carefully wrapping each in gauze and surrounding them with all the cotton balls he had. Tai and Ken were taking turns carrying Gatomon's egg along with their own.
Impatient, Tai stood, leaving half of his meager portions uneaten. "Let's go."
They walked for an hour with few words exchanged. The fact that they were probably walking right into a trap was a sobering thought, but the chance to get Kari and Matt back pushed them forward nonetheless.
It seemed to take forever until the base was in sight. Blackwormmon looked at their anxious faces and the precious cargo they carried with them. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
"We can't back down now," Ken said. "Kari is waiting for us to save her." I have to get rid of Kaiser once and for all, so that Kari and I can find peace.
"Very well." Blackwormmon led them to the only entrance on the ground floor. No one was guarding the archway, and no one could be seen down the hall. He was certain that Kaiser would be ready for them, but the Digidestined seemed more than willing to walk into his hands if it meant the chance to save their friends.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here? It looks to me like a bunch of intruders!" Kaiser strode confidently into the middle of the corridor, stopping the group from going any further. "I had a feeling you would betray me, Blackwormmon," he growled, terrifying the little worm and leaving him speechless.
"Where is she?" Ken demanded.
"Oh Ken. Is that anyway to greet an old friend? I thought we were closer than that."
"Where is she?" he repeated, annunciating every word.
"Do you really think I'd let you see her? Are you really that dense now that you don't have me in your head?"
Tai could sense Ken getting more and more furious with each passing second. "You're outnumbered, Kaiser. Just hand my sister and Matt over or we'll make you by force."
"You started out stupid," Kaiser observed. "As if I would be outnumbered at my own base." He snapped his fingers and a mob of Vegiemon appeared behind him. "You won't win," he warned, "and if you bother resisting those precious eggs of yours are going to be served scrambled to my digimon."
None of the Digidestined knew what to do. One or two of them might be able to get by and maybe find Kari, but they had no idea where Matt was or what condition he was in. Then they would have to find the rest. Not to mention the thought of losing their digimon completely.
No one moved.
Kaiser took the defeated look on Tai's face as compliance. "Take them to the dungeon," he ordered, waving his hand at them as he turned and walked around the corner.
Dragging the Digidestined through the corridors, the Vegiemon deposited them in the same cell as Matt. There was no immediate greeting however, as everyone was distracted by being chained to the wall, watching their digimons' eggs being tossed into a corner none of them could reach, while their digivices were tossed into the opposite corner.
Armadillomon was the most tied up; a chain wrapped around his belly, connecting him to the wall, his hands and feet were bound together, forcing him to stay in a very uncomfortable position. The rest, like Matt, only had an ankle chain.
Blackwormmon was left unchained; Kaiser knew he would not try to free them out of fear of the consequences.
Matt, for his part, barely even looked up while his friends were being forced into the same position he was in. He was…distracted. Kari's words haunted him; did he really betray TK? His rationale had shifted from blaming his hormones to trying to convince himself that she took advantage of him, and was currently musing that he couldn't betray TK because Ken was her boyfriend.
None of it made him feel any better.
"Matt!"
Matt shot his head up. He gulped. "TK."
"Matt, I was so worried! Are you okay?"
"I guess so," he responded, trying to sound normal. "I was expecting you to come rescue me, though, not join me." Humor, humor was good.
"Why were we stupid enough to just walk into his hands…err, dungeon?" Joe panicked, dropping his face into his hands. "I can't deal with this again."
"A plan would have been a good idea," Sora agreed.
"Have you seen Kari?" Ken asked.
"…Yeah." Matt whispered.
"Yeah?!" Ken mimicked.
Tai looked over suspiciously. "Why the hesitation? Is she okay?"
Matt swallowed thickly. "Physically, yes, but I'm sure Kaiser has done something to her again."
He didn't add anything about their actual encounter.
"How?" Ken shouted, "How could he have already figured something out?"
Izzy shuffled around, pulling his backpack in front of him. "Maybe I can find something on my laptop."
Everyone held their breath as Izzy booted up his computer. "Can you get on his network?" Ken asked.
"Yes, but I might need your help with some of the passwords."
Ken nodded, solemnly. Kaiser was just a manifestation of my mind after all.
"I need one for the main network."
Ken scrunched his face, thinking. "Try Jessica Alba," he finally spoke.
"Jessica Alba?" Izzy questioned.
"Don't ask, just try it."
Izzy shook his head and began typing. "Well I'll be damned. I guess we can infer Ken's celebrity crush no problem."
Five minutes passed in complete silence.
"God. Even for an evil genius, that's pretty good."
"What?" Tai asked for everyone.
"Well, obviously the problem with the spore and the liquid darkness was that there wasn't a strong enough base for the darkness to develop so it just fed off Kari. It seems as though he's invented a chip similar to the spore, and a mixture of ingredients that get injected into the chip." He paused to scan more of the information. "Basically the mixture gathers all of the goodness, the light, within Kari and compresses it so it's easy to trap. Kari's goodness in essence is unreachable, making her completely evil."
Trying not to think about what that meant, Ken asked "what about the problem with it feeding off of her? Is that an issue?"
"Looks like no; the darkness has the chip to feed off of. Kari is just a vessel for it, it's not connected to her in the same way the spore was. And if the energy begins to deplete, Kaiser can inject more of the liquid."
Blackwormmon let out a sob. "How could he do that? She's such a good person! How can he want her when she is completely devoid of the light he so desired?"
Izzy shut his laptop. "I don't really know what to do from here. We're trapped, Kari is evil again, and there isn't anyone who can help us escape."
The cell fell quiet until Yolei grumbled in discomfort. The buttons on the back pockets of her jeans did not mold well with a concrete floor. "Here," Davis said, taking off his hooded jacket and tossing it to her. "I'll never understand girl pants. So impractical."
Sora couldn't help but grin. "At least some good came from this."
"What good could have possibly come from this?" Tai demanded from her right.
"It brought some of us closer together," she smiled, pointing from Davis to Yolei. She looked at him and extended her arm out towards him. "I do have the crest of love," she added as Tai gave her hand a squeeze, watching him smile despite himself.
It was nearly a full day before a digimon came to bring the prisoners any food. A Vegiemon hopped in and set down a plate of stale bread, butter, and a few water bottles. It was disgusting, but everyone was starving enough to take a piece of the bread.
"Which one of you is TK?" the Vegiemon asked.
TK blanched. "Why?"
"Master wants a word with him. A proposal, if you will."
"I'm not interested," TK answered, crossing his arms.
"It wasn't a request."
Everyone shouted their protests as TK was unchained and pulled from the cell. He grabbed onto the bars, while the Vegiemon pulled from his waist, until the strain was too painful. Looking back Vegiemon sneered. "Foolish humans."
TK soon found himself thrown at the feet of the Kaiser. His eyes scanned up the figure as he stood, glaring defiantly. "Whatever it is, I'm not interested."
"How can you say that when I haven't said anything yet?"
"I don't know, maybe because you're a monster."
"You're brave, standing up to me. But I wonder if that's the smart thing to do."
TK couldn't help but look interested. "What do you mean?"
"I have a proposition for you. I want you to kill Ken."
"What?! No way!"
"If you do then I will allow the rest of your friends to go home. Don't you want to save your brother?"
TK found it difficult to respond. "What about… what about Kari?" He wasn't actually considering it, was he?
Kaiser smiled. He's mine. "I will allow you to stay here with her. We'll…share her. You'll be able to make sure she's safe and happy. You do want her to be safe and happy don't you?"
"I can't kill Ken," TK finally managed.
"Sure you can. After everything he's done to you. He kidnapped Kari, put her through hell, made me real, and took her from you."
TK's face dropped. He had nothing to say.
"So I assume we are in agreement?" Kaiser asked, offering TK a knife.
"TK! What happened?"
TK ignored Davis as he reentered the cell, without the "assistance" of the Vegiemon.
Instead, he walked over to Ken, pulled him to his feet by the collar, and punched the blue haired teen in the jaw.
Ken faltered; the force of the punch accompanied by TK's shocking behavior sent him stumbling backwards into the wall.
Yolei gasped. "TK what are you doing?"
Ken stared up at TK, pressing on the left side of his jaw, wincing. "What did he tell you?"
Drawing the knife, TK used the weight of his body to pin Ken against the wall. The knife found a home along Ken's throat. "I have to," he whispered. "For everyone. For Kari."
The other destined tried in vain to get closer to Ken. No one was able to get close enough to pull TK away.
"TK, don't do this," Matt pleaded, "you can't do this."
"I can do it, Matt. If I do then everyone gets to go home, and I get to stay with Kari…"
Kari.
TK's eyes widened in horror. What was he doing? How could he be ready to have Ken's blood on his hands?
Ken, who Kari loved.
Yes, despite how TK felt, Kari did love him. TK felt sick thinking of what losing Ken would do to Kari. He stepped back, tripping over his own feet and falling on his ass. He raised his hands, letting the knife fall to the ground. He just stared at them.
"Oh God," he finally spat out. "Oh God, what was I thinking?" TK buried his face in his hands sobbing. "What am I?"
"TK," Ken said, not knowing how to continue.
"I believed him. I'm that much of an idiot! I thought that I could save everyone and be able to stay with Kari, to save Kari!"
"TK,"
"And I didn't care if that meant you had to be the bargaining chip. I felt it was all justified because of how much I hate you."
Matt sank down to the ground. "TK, I'm so sorry," he muttered quietly enough that no one heard.
"I hated you. Right up until I had that knife against your throat, I hated you. I had too. You took her from me…if you hadn't taken her, if I had protected her from you…"
Ken stood silent, remembering the day he kidnapped Kari. Kaiser had wanted her to fall to her death. That day had been the beginning of his salvation. "You couldn't possibly know how sorry I am for what I did to Kari; to everyone. But I won't, I can't be sorry that she came into my life."
He didn't know if TK heard him or not. TK stared blankly at the wall, his body visibly shaking. "I just want to make her happy. And as much as I hate to admit it, you make her happy. I couldn't take that away from her."
Ken nodded, understanding. He extended his hand out to TK who, after a long delay, grasped it and stood. "She's everything to me," Ken said.
"I know."
"Have you heard what's happened?"
"No, what?"
"Your friends walked into the base, on their own accord, and demanded I give you back."
"And?"
"I threw them in the dungeon, naturally."
"…What are you going to do to them?"
Kaiser shrugged, indifferent. "I'm really not too concerned." He stared at her, looking for a reaction.
"I'm sure you'll think of something good," Kari replied.
"What about Tai?"
"What about Tai?"
Kaiser smiled; his new plan had worked perfectly. Even with the spore Kari had still cared about her brother. Now she couldn't care less. "You're perfect," he whispered, wrapping his arms around her waist.
They shared a kiss. "Shall we…" Kaiser began.
Kari interrupted, laughing. "What? Continue this in your bedroom?" Kaiser half nodded. "I'm sorry, Babe, but just because I'm evil does not mean I'm easy."
"Uh guys, you should probably look at this."
"What is it, Joe?"
"Gatomon's egg, it's turning black."
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