Title: What's Mine Is Mine
Characters: Ken, Daisuke, Hikari||Pairing: Ken x Daisuke
Chapter: 9-20||Words: 8,100
Challenges: Diversity Writing: Digimon Adventure/02/tri: Ken x Daisuke: I13: more than 15 chapters; Three-Sided Box Challenge, 900 words & 20 chapters; One Ship Boot Camp, #25, administer; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #21, 20 chapters
Notes: N/A
Summary: The Chosen prevented Kaiser from taking Daisuke once. He won't allow that again. This time, they're going to hand him over personally, and they're not getting him back.

Too hot. Too hot. Too hot. Daisuke could barely keep himself from struggling and he didn't really want to. He wasn't sure anymore that the Kaiser had him. He'd be in more pain, wouldn't he be? Wouldn't Kaiser hurt him as much as he could?

But all that happened was that searing pain that kept itself between him and the world and that didn't seem like something that Kaiser would do.

But he wasn't with his friends. He would've recognized them. The voices he did hear weren't ones he recognized. Confusing, distorted, noises that really didn't make any sense. Maybe they weren't even voices at all, but just noises. Like wind in the trees or the sound of the ocean.

He sort of hoped it was the wind in the trees. If he was at the ocean and he couldn't get into the water and cool off, that would be a lot worse torture than anything the Kaiser could do to him.

Daisuke drew in stuttering, harsh breaths, his fingers clutching at whatever was underneath him. Dirt? Yeah, that was dirt. He dug into it and squirmed, trying to figure out which way his feet were and how to get them on the ground.

Standing up probably wouldn't be the best idea, but he didn't care about good ideas. He just wanted to find a way to get the heat to stop, to just cool himself off, and maybe, after he was done with that, find out where his friends were and go to them.

He wasn't tied down anymore. Daisuke realized that with a faint wash of heat that wasn't at all like the flames that scorched him and kept him away from the world.

Daisuke struggled, trying to bend his knees, and thought he'd managed it. He jerked up, doing his best to get his eyes open, and that he wasn't certain if he'd done. He couldn't really see anything in a way that made sense. Blurs of color, shadows, and light, nothing more.

Which made figuring out how to get up a lot more difficult than it really needed to be, and he found himself pitching to one side, crashing downward.

From somewhere he couldn't see, hands closed on him. They felt like human hands, but he still couldn't fully recognize them. He struggled, pulling away, and the hands turned gentle, as if trying to reassure him. More noises sounded, but he was quite certain this time that they weren't voices. They didn't make any sense. More wind in the trees, more waves on the shore, and nothing that he could understand.

But the hands urged him downward, soothing, and Daisuke shook his head, or hoped that he did.

"Let me go!" He thought he shouted. Had he made the noise? Had he been able to at all? They didn't act as if he had. They didn't let him go, did nothing but keep him down, and then something touched onto his lips.

Water. Cool water, and he tried to get to it, but the moment it passed his lips, it burned, burned like the flame that heated him from within, unmaking him, changing him.

He pushed, wanting the cool water to come back, and not this filth that tried to destroy him.

They brought more water but it did the same thing, cool on his lips and hot the moment that it touched inside of him.

Daisuke's small burst of strength faded and he slumped down, shuddering.

"My pet," he heard the Kaiser's voice, strong and clear, the only thing that was clear. He listened for lack of anything else to listen to. "Only what I give you can help you. Anything that you eat or drink – or try to eat or drink – will be worse than ashes to you. Only I can give you what you need: or what you want."

Daisuke tried to curl in on himself, his throat parched and his stomach churning just at the thought of drinking or eating. If he couldn't have anything but what the Kaiser gave him, then he'd… he'd get really, really hungry.

"You don't need to worry. You'll come to me soon enough and take everything that I give you. This is what I am remaking you for."

Words ached to crawl out of his throat, but nothing made it past his lips. Not even the slightest of sounds. Kaiser laughed.

"What do you need to say to me? Nothing at all. You're going to be mine in every way that matters. Your obedience will be mine. Your loyalty will be mine. You will eat and drink and sleep at my command, and gladly so. You are going to be mine. You are already mine."

A shake of the head and little more. It was all that he could manage, but he did it anyway.

"I'm not asking this of you, pet. This isn't something you have a choice in. This is what is going to be. This is what will always be. And won't you just love it like that?"

He tried to shake his head again. He wanted to. But he couldn't get it to move and since he had just a moment earlier, he told himself it was just because of how tired he was. He really wanted to sleep.

"You may sleep, my pet. You'll need all of your rest."

Daisuke slept.

To Be Continued

Notes: Poor Daisuke. And it won't get much better from here – well, depending on your definition of better.