Dorian didn't see much point in leaving the twins ignorant for any longer than necessary. It had always been his intention to use Koichi to get to Tache, that much he had never hidden. But the methods he intended to use, the experiences the dark twin would be required to endure, the purpose he had to serve; these were not things the Japanese Digidestined needed to know right away. Not things they would've understood after that first alley encounter, at least, not consciously. Now the truth was out, the confession as good as golden, all without his direct prodding. All exactly as he had expected. Validated in his plans and procedures, he all but skipped to the back door of his apartment, pushing it open and illuminating an inconspicuous lantern on the table. Inviting them in to appreciate his masterpiece.
Only "appreciate" was not an appropriate word to describe the brothers' reactions. "Deride" might've been a better choice. Unlike Izumi and Takuya, Koji and Koichi were not confused or in any way unsure about what greeted them beyond the threshold. After their experience with Shizuka earlier, they both knew exactly what it was. They understood the purpose of the wires and restraints, what sorts of devices might fit into the jacks on the table, how the helmet was going to work. Above all else, they knew exactly who was expected to sit in the chair, and the thought of it made them sick. Koji's anger simmered just beneath his skin, contained by an iron will on the verge of melting. His eyes scanned the room, taking it all in in one analytical sweep, then fixed on Dorian in an accusatory stare. Koichi… Koichi felt violated. Objectified. Vulnerable. Anger and fear and shame churned in a vile mixture within him and he wished desperately that he could attribute this… this thing, to another hallucination. But it was real. It was all real.
"So," Koji started in a low, dangerous voice, positioning himself between his twin and Dorian protectively. "Care to explain why you have a brainwashing chair in your back room?"
"You know perfectly well that it's not a "brainwashing" chair," Dorian shot back, smirking insidiously. "This is an adaptation of state of the art brain-computer communication technology. I've added a conductive gel and electron-multiplying layer to boost the signal to noise, thus eliminating the need to position each individual electrode exactly. His bioelectric field is stronger anyway, but some extra enhancement can't hurt. Should save us a lot of time, don't you think?"
"Should save us time when we do what," snapped Koji. "Just what do you think this will accomplish? What good do you think could possibly come from using something like this!?"
"Have you ever read Dracula? The original novel by Bram Stoker?"
Silence. Of course, they'd all heard of Dracula. Who hasn't in this day and age? They'd seen him in numerous incarnations, heard him referenced and the story of Vlad the Impaler told in this piece of media or another. But as for actually reading the classic Victorian novel, well, it wasn't exactly on their Literature class list. And how a vampire book could possibly connect to their current situation anyway escaped them. Well, it escaped all but one of them. Koichi swallowed hard, moving past his brother and Dorian to the chair, regarding it like an actual, living entity that might jump up and attack him. He stretched his hand towards the gel on the spine and a small spark of lightning shot from his fingertips into the wiring, sending a spray of yellow light across the room. Yet he didn't jump or anything, just smiled a little, like he knew that was going to happen.
"I have," he whispered, not looking up from the chair. "Once he's finished with Lucy, Dracula makes Jonathan Harker's fiancé Mina his victim. He forces her to drink his blood, which allows him to see into her mind and influence her behavior. Turns her into an unwilling spy. But Van Helsing convinces Mina to undergo hypnosis, so she can look back through the link into Dracula's mind. That's how they're able to find him and ultimately kill him."
"More or less," said Dorian with a cold shrug.
"I won't do it." Koichi turned to face his friends, his gaze lingering on Takuya and Izumi for a moment before settling on Dorian. "I refuse."
"Koichi," Izumi tried after a long, thick pause, layering her voice with as much diplomacy as it would hold. "If this machine can give us some idea of where Tache is or what he's planning, then I think we have to at least consider it."
"No we don't," Koji barked, giving her an offended look. "If Koichi says he's not doing it then that's it. Case closed. We'll find another way to deal with Tache."
"What other way," said Takuya, exasperated. "I don't know about you guys, but Zumi and me have had negative success finding anything out about this cult. We have to do something; we can't just sit here!"
"Besides," Dorian admonished. "I thought you said you could keep it out. If that's true, then what's the problem?"
"You know perfectly well that this thing only works if I let it in," Koichi spat, venom hissing in his voice.
"By your own admission there's a part of Tache that's already active inside you. Instead of letting it control you, why not use it for your own benefit? Why not use it to help your friends?"
"You think I deserve this. You blame me for all of it and this is just another way to punish me."
"Don't flatter yourself; I'm just trying to be helpful. Even though, directly or not, Tache and everything It has done is because of you."
"No it's not. I wish it was, but it's not. I wanted to agree with you. I wanted to believe this is all somehow my fault, because if it was then I had some measure of control. There was something I could do, some behavior I could change that would help. So I listened to you. You told me if I isolated myself, if I pushed my friends and family away, I could keep them safe. But that's not true. I was there; I saw the ocean and I heard the insecurities it uses to brainwash people. More than that, I remember what it's like. All I've done is make the people I care about most more vulnerable to Tache- to the corrupt darkness It represents. You were wrong then and you're wrong now. Giving myself to this thing can't help anyone."
"Indeed," mocked Dorian, sneering. "I'm sure your dear friends and brother will remember that when Tache is gutting their souls in that nice place you visited. Or is that what you want?"
"How dare you," whispered Koichi, his shoulders tightening. "How dare you- I'm as much Tache's victim as anyone else! That doesn't make me helpless. I have a choice and I'm not going to walk willingly into the corruption again. I won't just let it take me."
"No one is suggesting that you should," cried Izumi, trying to insert herself and defuse the conflict. But instead of quieting Koichi's anger, she enflamed it. He rounded on her, eyes like pits of yawning blackness, filled with horrors she could only imagine.
"Of course they are." His words were saturated with chilled disdain, his frame wired with tension. "Do you even know how this thing works? Do you know how it would yield any useful information? You either don't, or you lied earlier when you told Koji and I none of this had been discussed yet."
"Sounds to me like some decisions were made without us." Koji moved to join his brother by the chair, his words almost as cold as his stare. Izumi recoiled, caught in her not-quite falsehood.
"Hey, lay off man," Takuya shouted, putting his arm protectively around Izumi's shoulder. "This is the first we've heard about any of this!"
"Arguing is pointless. What I've built is a way to spy on Tache and nothing more. It's high time you accept responsibility for your mess and do what it takes to clean it up. This world cannot afford the luxury of your juvenile behavior."
"I won't go back there, and you have no right to ask me to. You can't just plug me in and ask what I see!"
"I think I can."
"No wonder Bahar and Ysault left you!"
Silence. Horrible, jagged, bleeding silence. Dorian radiated rage like some sort of bomb, sending out little pre-shock waves as it prepared to blow a hole to the planet's core. If any of them had thought him angry or even mildly irritated before, they had been terribly wrong. This was his anger. This was his grudge and his raison d'être, tucked away behind a mask of calm. Now it was out, the animal in each of them knew enough to recognize that, and it was entirely directed at Koichi. He stood his ground, his own frigid will like a pike in the earth, a challenge. Go ahead, hit me if you can, prove me right. The two stood like that for an eternity, Koichi by the chair, Dorian by the table, a minefield blanketing the rest of the room. Then, without changing his expression at all, Dorian turned his back to them and walked over to the door. For a moment they thought he was going to leave, but he just grabbed the handle and pulled it closed. Gently.
"Don't you even speak their names you filth," he hissed without turning.
"I'm not the one that pushed them away. I'm not the one that made life so unbearable they had to leave. I'm not the one that made them vulnerable."
"Koichi," Izumi breathed, afraid of setting either one of them off and provoking physical violence. "What are you saying?"
"Where are they now, Dorian," Koichi pressed, frowning. His breath was shortening as he spoke and, sensing a growing unsteadiness, Koji moved in closer behind him. Like a guard dog. He knew what Koichi was going to say and needed to be close to absorb any retaliation. "I've seen Tache's current host and she is not Japanese. How do you explain that?"
"You're Its host, Koichi," Dorian said in a monotone. "Whatever you say or do, you can't escape what you are. I'll prove it right now, to you and all of your "friends." You're head's starting to hurt, right? You're heart's beating too fast and it feels like your whole body is just one bloody sack getting ready to pop. Heat's building up, in your neck and hands. It's unbearable."
"What are you talking about? I feel…"
Koichi's lips parted as Dorian spoke, allowing dry gasps to slip over them. His stomach clenched and cramped and his pupils constricted into pinpricks in a sea of navy blue. One hand hovered, trying to cradle his cracking brow yet still too proud to do so. With each passing moment his body felt weaker and weaker, a terrible flu crashing over him in a matter of moments. Ever since the door closed…
"I'm fine…"
"What did you do," cried Koji, anger and fear making his voice raw. He grabbed Koichi's shoulders to steady him, searching for a cause from across their telepathic bond. But it wasn't there. He reached for Koichi and there was nothing. "What did you do!"
"This room's a Faraday Cage," explained Dorian calmly to the door. "I've coated it in conductive mesh, no holes, so when I close this door, no external signals can get in. So really, I've done nothing by try to protect you all from Tache's influence. My best guess, if I had to make one, is he's suffering from an acute case of withdrawal, but it has nothing to do with me."
"Withdrawal," repeated Takuya, his eyes flicking from Koichi's now visibly shaking form to Dorian's back. "Withdrawal from what?"
"From whatever Easter Egg Tache's followers left in his bag when it was unattended. While he was out playing with… Shizuka, was it? Someone must've slipped a transponder into his things. My best guess is it's been stimulating the particles inside you're Warrior of Darkness ever since, suppressing his pain, getting him ready for Tache's imminent arrival."
"That's bull shit!" Koji looked like he dearly wanted to launch himself across the room and rip the French Digidestined's face off. Koichi, too, looked like he wanted to say something, but he couldn't form the words. His throat was so tight and dry he couldn't speak, agonizing, debilitating pressure building up behind his eyes. Paralyzed, the twins stared Dorian down, willing their vengeance into his turned back.
"Stop it," yelled Izumi, taking two long strides and grabbing the Frenchman by the arm. Her nails dug into the fabric of his jacket, her jade eyes piercing. "Stop it! You're hurting him!"
"Alright," Dorian said, a sinister grin twisting his lips. "If you all can't stand to see your friend suffer, I'll make the pain go away. It's easy enough, really. All I have to do is let Tache's signal back in and it'll make him whole."
"No don't!" Koichi cried out, his voice raw and airy, but he was too late. Dorian twisted the handle and swung the door wide open, the same sinister, manic grin contorting his face in the shadows. A wave of static came crashing in like a physical force, pulling their hairs on end and tingling on their skin. Heat retreated from the air, sound dulled, vision darkened, and Koichi's pupils dilated. His eyelids grew heavy and his head lulled back, his breath suddenly deep and regular. As if sedated. Then he crumpled, a puppet with cut strings. Koji fell with him to the ground, too stunned and afraid to react immediately.
"Koichi!" Takuya was at his side in an instant, hands hovering unhelpfully as his frantic brain tried to diagnose his friend. The dark twin stared up, his open eyes little more than pits of unseeing black. He didn't respond to Takuya's words or to his brother's touch. "What the hell? What's wrong with him?"
"Hmm, seems like it overwhelmed him this time. Interesting."
Izumi's fist was like a tiny steel ball when it made contact with the side of Dorian's face, catching him off guard and cracking his head against the doorframe. He staggered sideways, one hand pressed against the wall to steady himself and the other cradling his jaw. She brushed by him, tearing into Koji and Koichi's bags like a starved bear, digging for anything that looked remotely out of place. Koji, catching on before his best friend, leapt to his feet and went to join her, but was caught in the doorway when Dorian grabbed his elbow.
"You can't save him," he hissed through gritted teeth. "You're going to have to let it happen eventually." Koji pulled his arm away and rounded on Dorian, grabbing him by the front of his jacket and pinning him to the wall. Rage boiled in his eyes and for an instant he debated how best to go about hurting the older boy. But something else beat him to the punch; dark liquid glinted in his nostrils then spilled over his lips and down his chin, dripping onto his shirt as a faint, gurgling noise started in his throat. Koji let go and took a step back, confusion overriding his anger as he tried to understand.
"Hey buddy," he heard Takuya's voice and turned. "You okay?"
Koichi was sitting up, his body completely relaxed, his face expressionless. He did not respond to Takuya's question, or acknowledge his presence in any way. Nor did he pay any attention to his surroundings or position on the floor. His black gaze was fixed, unblinking on Dorian and, as the French Digidestined made a move to wipe the blood from his face with the back of his hand, he narrowed that gaze. Dorian froze, rigid, his lips curling into a snarl as blood continued to drip from his nose. Takuya frowned and reached out to his friend, just barely brushing Koichi's shoulder. In a flash Koichi had his fingers curled around Takuya's throat, iron grip firm and threatening. His eyes slid sideways to meet Takuya's bewildered gaze, and the nothing he saw in them chilled the Warrior of Flame to his core.
"That one's memories belong to me," whatever entity inside Koichi's skin said in a frozen monotone. "Do not try to interfere."
"Nii-san, no…" The black eyes moved to Koji and there was no recognition in them. No indication that he associated the term or the speaker with himself, nor signs that the words had affected him in any way. Koji met that empty gaze with their mother's eyes and reached out with his mind instead, willing Koichi to hear.
Nii-san please. Please stop. You're scaring me.
Stillness. Koichi frowned, releasing Takuya and tightening his shoulders. He stared at Koji like he couldn't see him, but knew he was supposed to be there, blinking uncertainly. Then his eyes went wide and he gasped as if in sudden pain, his body contracting in defense. And as quickly as it started it was over and he fell against Takuya's chest. There was a clattering noise and all three boys turned to see Izumi just past the doorway. A little black box with an insidiously simple on-off switch was at her feet and her hands were shaking.
"My god," she whispered, staring at Koichi as if she'd never met him. "What just happened?"