Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon and its characters, nor am I making any money from this. This is done purely for fun.
Warnings: This story disregards the ending of season 02. The Digital World is still a secret except for the DigiDestined. And this story contains violence, angst, and some mild language. I have only seen the American version of Digimon. So although I try to stick to cannon as much as possible, there are some things that I have to guess at.
As always, I thank my sister for getting me involved in yet another anime obsession.
To Sleep…Perchance to Scream
Chapter 3
Davis stared at the laptop's screen in horror. Daemon's visage, frozen on the paused video, returned his stare with triumphant contempt. The eleven-year-old leader of the Digidestined could almost feel a part of his childhood slip away under that gaze. It wasn't supposed to be this way.
Every time the young Digidestined had squared off against the evil Digimon, they had always come out on top. Oh, sure. There had been some close calls, some pretty narrow scrapes, but each time they had come out the victor. They had all been able to go home. No one had died.
But Daemon had changed that. The evil Digimon had killed humans, deliberately and with great maliciousness. He had killed Ken's parents in order to get at the Child of Kindness. In the recesses of his child's mind, Davis knew that the rules had changed. People could die because of a Digital Monster. People had died because of one. Ken's parents had been killed. That meant that other people's parents could be killed. Davis' family could be killed as well!
They can kill people! His mind shrieked in outrage and betrayal of his beliefs. He killed people! He killed Ken's parents! He looked over at Ken. What he saw shocked him almost as much as his shattered illusions.
Ken was sitting back in his chair, glaring at Daemon's image on the screen. Cold rage glittered in his violet eyes, narrowed in contemplation as if sizing up the enemy. But any horror, grief, or shock that Davis would have expected to see was absent. "Ken?" he asked hesitantly.
"He killed them because of me," Ken said in barely more than a whisper, but laced with hate. Davis wasn't sure whom it was directed at, Daemon or Ken himself. "I'm the reason they're dead."
Davis' brown eyes opened wide in horror. "No! Don't you believe it, Ken!" he shouted.
Ken looked at Davis, his expression unreadable. "Of course I believe it, Davis. It's the truth. If Daemon wasn't after me, my parents and the rest of those people would still be alive." Davis could have sworn that Ken's eyes turned darker, nearing black. But it may have been a trick of the light. Ken abruptly stood up, shoving his chair back.
"What are you doing?" Davis asked uneasily.
"Leaving," Ken announced. "My being here puts you and your family in danger."
Any other child might have felt the slightest bit of relief at Ken's leaving. Ken was right; his presence was putting Davis and his family in grave danger. But Davis wasn't the Child of Friendship and Courage for nothing. He never even considered letting Ken take off to face Daemon on his own.
Grabbing Ken by his shoulders, he spun the Child of Kindness around to face him. "No! You are not leaving. We are friends and you are my partner. We will face it together!" Davis felt frustration at not being able to articulate his feelings more clearly.
Ken studied him thoughtfully. He knew that he needed help if was going to defeat Daemon, as much as he hated to admit it. Slowly, he nodded to Davis and sat back down. "Alright, but we will have to move fast, before he tries again." Turning back to the laptop, he started humming a tune under his breath.
Davis, relieved that he wouldn't have to physically stop Ken from leaving, listened to what the young genius was humming. It sounded familiar to Davis, who recognized it after a few bars. He was surprised by it though. He had always thought Ken listened to opera or classical stuff. He was about to open his mouth and suggest to Ken that they call the others when the dark-haired genius leaned forward and began to type furiously on the laptop. As he typed, he began to sing under his breath, and Davis's hair stood up on the back of his neck as he listened to the words.
No colours anymore, I want
them turn to black
I see the girls walk by,
dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until
my darkness goes
Davis swallowed hard at the diamond-hard resolve shining the dark violets eyes. Davis could only thank his lucky stars that the object of that resolve was directed not at himself.
"What is it?" Ken asked calmly.
"What are you going to do?" Davis asked uneasily. Ken had seemed to know that Davis was going to speak without looking at him.
A slow sneer grew on Ken's lips as he continued to contemplate the screen. "Daemon will pay for what he did, Davis," Ken stated in a matter of fact tone. "I am going to wipe every last trace of him off the Digital world. I will delete the very memory of him."
Davis's eyes widened. "Can you do that?" he asked in awe.
Ken favored Davis with a withering look. "There is nothing I cannot do," he said with such confidence that Davis believed him. But Davis, even though he was only eleven, wasn't the leader of the Digidestined for nothing. He instinctively knew there was something wrong about Ken. Something that reminded him of the
(Emperor)
time before they were friends and partners. That cold aura that Ken had told the Digidestined that had surrounded him since he had first entered the Digital world seemed to re-emerge. And even though Davis was the leader, he knew there were times when he needed the help of older, more experienced minds than his own.
"I'm going to call the others," he mumbled and fled to the telephone in the kitchen. Ken didn't appear to notice. He was too busy typing at his computer, planning to utterly destroy his parents' murderer.
Ken had just sent an e-mail to a Computer Science professor he knew at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Professor had been on the panel that had judged the competition that Ken had won with his toothbrush program. The professor, very impressed with Ken's programming skills, had introduced himself to the young genius after the competition and they had been exchanging e-mails ever since. Now Ken sent a request for information concerning computer viruses.
While he logged onto the Internet to send his request, Ken started formulating a battle plan in his mind. Obviously Daemon had escaped from the Black Ocean, so sending him back wasn't an option. Not that Ken would even entertain anything less than complete and total annihilation of the thing responsible for his parents' deaths. The renegade Digimon could move back and forth between the Digital world and the real world with ease. But Ken had an ace up his sleeve. He still had his dark Digivice, and something more.
Ken knew he was justified in his actions, and doubted that any of the other Digidestined would actively try to stop him. Some of them like Cody or Yolei might balk at the thought of destroying Daemon so completely, but Ken felt sure that Davis and maybe even TK might help him. And as much as he hated to admit it, he would need more than Imperialdramon to pull this one off.
Hell, Imperialdramon with the help of two Ultimates had been nowhere near strong enough to defeat that evil Mega. Maybe three Megas might be able to defeat Daemon, but Ken wanted more than to merely defeat him. He wanted that Digimon to suffer, and then die with the knowledge that he had utterly failed. Ken became aware that he was singing again, softly, under his breath.
It's not easy really, when
your whole world is black
I look inside myself and see
my heart is black
I see my red door and it's
pattern painted black
If Ken had stopped to analyze his mindset, he may have been rather disturbed by the dark tinge in his thoughts. But Ken was too focused on his target to realize that the darkness that was usually tucked away in the back of his mind was growing, feeding off his grief and rage. The only thing on his mind was revenge. He had felt the darkness beginning to stir in the depths of his mind when he had first received the news of his parents' death, but the numbing shock of the tragedy had distracted him from being concerned.
If he would have sat down and thought about it, he might have realized that he was welcoming the darkness back into his life. But all he knew was that something had killed his parents and he was willing to go to any lengths to avenge them. He told himself that he wanted to stop Daemon from hurting anyone else near him, and that after Daemon had been stopped, he would banish the darkness back to the corner of his mind where it belonged. But Ken was only eleven, and sometimes even a genius can make a mistake.
Out in the kitchen, Davis waited impatiently for someone to answer his call. Finally, a male voice answered, "Hello?"
"Tai?" Davis asked in low tones over the phone, glancing back at the living room where Ken was still typing at the laptop.
"Yeah, what's up Davis?" Tai answered absently, the sound of music blared in the background.
"We have a problem," Davis started, and proceeded to tell the first Digidestined leader everything.
TBC
Painted Black is by the Rolling Stones.