DISCLAIMER: I do not own Digimon or any of its characters. I just like to torture them. Please don't sue.
A/N: Things are going to get interesting in this chapter...
The next day at lunch, the DigiDestined were as silent as usual in Ken's presence. Yolei only picked at her food. After the others left, she took her tray and sat next to him.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asked, as if she was invading his space.
"You looked lonely. There's no one else for me to talk to."
"Talk?" Ken choked. "Since when do *you* want to talk to *me*?"
She shrugged. "Well, okay, if you'd rather I left--"
"No, no, it's all right. In fact, I order you to sit right there."
She smiled. "Fine."
There was a pause.
Ken tilted her head at her. "What did you want to talk about?"
"I dunknow. You pick."
"Well, there's so little to talk about that would interest you..."
"What do you *think*?"
Ken frowned. "Huh?"
"What do you *think*? How do you *feel* about things? Tell me about *you*."
"Well, that's a new one. No one ever asked me about me. At least, not what I liked or what I thought. They asked plenty of questions about being a genius, though."
"Well, I don't want to know about that. I want to know about *you*."
The thought was completely new and different for Ken. ~She cares about *me*.~ He had to go along with this. He was too curious and too encouraged to pass it up. "What do you want to know about me?"
Yolei sighed. "Try anything pre-DigiWorld in your life."
Ken nodded. He took off his glasses and laid them on the table in front of him.
It unnerved Yolei. Those eyes of his. When he looked at her, she could feel him probing into her, trying to read the emotions that flickered in her eyes, and yet she could not tear herself away from his gaze.
"I was just an average kid. Things went wrong in my life, and I started studying hard. I found out about the Digital World, and--oh." He stopped mid-sentence at her frown. "I guess the story would be more interesting if there was more detail."
"Yes." She nodded. "Wormmon mentioned that you had...an older brother."
Ken sat back in his chair. Wormmon had spilled. ~I *did* tell him to be honest.~ It had been a long time since he allowed himself to dwell on the memories. "Osamu..." he said, quietly.
"Is that his name?"
"Osamu. My brother. We called him Sam."
Yolei nodded. "That's what Wormmon called him. Go on. What was he like?"
Ken sighed. "He was older than me. Four years older than me. And he was a genius for real. He didn't have to work at it like I did. My parents favored him because he was so smart and everyone paid attention to him. Sometimes the two of us got along great, but whenever he was the center of attention, I hated him. I wished he would just disappear." He stopped again. He expected Yolei to be staring daggers at him.
She was looking at him sympathetically. "I have--had, I don't know what's happened since we came here--three siblings. I know exactly how you must have felt."
Ken nodded. That made sense. "A digivice came out of his computer. He thought it was his but it was mine. He put it in a drawer, but as soon as he left the room, I got it out and touched it. I traveled to the DigiWorld, but I was only there for a little while. I came back and no time had passed. Sam caught me messing with 'his' gadget and yelled at me. He hit it out of my hand and said he couldn't trust me. From that time on, I always hated him." Ken stopped again. It was good for effect, and he wanted to say this right. He couldn't make himself appear weak. "And then, the accident happened. He fell off our balcony. Fell three stories onto the sidewalk."
Yolei gasped. "Oh, Ken...I'm so sorry."
Ken sneered. "Not as sorry as I was. I wasn't even in the room with the balcony when it happened, but I heard my mother scream and I knew something had happened to him. The ambulance came and took him away. It's kind of a blur--I was young. All I know is that after they closed the doors of that ambulance, I never saw him again. Just his photo on top of his coffin."
"Oh, Ken..." she sniffled. "I really am sorry..."
"You pity me. I don't want your pity." He stood, but she reached out and grabbed his arm. "What is it?" he asked.
"Please, sit. Don't go just yet. We've finally both decided that we want to get along. So now we ought to try it. Neither of us should go off on a tangent and walk out the minute the other crosses a line."
He considered that. ~She's right...~ something inside whispered. ~Why not listen to her this time? It would be the strong thing to do, to settle differences instead of running from them.~ He sat. "Okay. But I don't want your pity."
"I don't pity you. I'm sorry that bad things had to happen and hurt you. I'm sorry just like I would be for Kari, or Cody, or T.K. or even Davis."
"You consider me that close?"
Yolei turned away, blushing furiously. ~I do...but he can't know that now...~ She had been more comfortable discussing things past than things present.
"I think this getting along stuff would be easier if we were both honest," Ken said.
She turned toward him and blinked.
He continued. "But neither one of us wants to admit anything."
"We can go on talking about the past. It was happier, for me at least."
Ken pondered. "All right, the past it is, until we gain courage to be brutally honest all the time. And at times, it was happier for me, too. I think. Anyway. Sam was gone. My parents were upset and paid *less* attention to me than ever. Until I started trying to be like Sam. I became a boy genius and suddenly I was their world."
"But the Digital World--?"
"Oh, that. I came here and realized that the Digivice *was* mine and not Sam's. For once something was truly mine. And those feelings evolved into the Empire I have now."
Yolei shook her head. "The Digivice, Digimon, and the state of being chosen to protect the Digital World weren't enough?"
"No."
"Wait--when was this?"
"Around the time the first group came to the DigiWorld. Kamiya and the others. Even then I was planning. It took me several more years of work to get things right."
"So you're saying that you could have joined the DigiDestined back then? Helped them at those various times they had to come and fix things after Apocalymon?"
"I could have. But why *would* I have?"
"Just curious."
He looked at her pointedly. "If I *had* joined them, I would have never become Kaiser."
"You talk like that's a bad thing."
Ken rolled his eyes. "Don't you see? If I had not become Kaiser, you, Cody, and Davis would be living your normal lives."
"Do you think I don't miss it?"
Ken sighed. He raked his fingers through his hair, and looked back up at her. "Not *that* normal life. You never would have gotten Digivices! No Digimon! No DigiDestined! You would be like you were before you knew you were DigiDestined! You would be a normal person."
It dawned on Yolei. She had never thought of that. To have no Kaiser meant to have never met Hawkmon--
They had only been together from the start of the school year until mid-November, but they had grown so close. They were best friends.
She hated this imprisonment, but to have never met Hawkmon! To have been normal! She abhorred the thought. And she decided to tell Ken. In a roundabout way that might get to him. "You know, you shouldn't kick Wormmon around like you do. If I could start over and choose to either be normal and never know of the Digital World, or to have spent those few weeks with Hawkmon, I'd choose battling you by his side all over again."
Ken blinked. "Really? Your friendship with Hawkmon was that deep?"
"*Is* that deep. We were separated for six years and we hit it off immediately at Kari's wedding."
Ken pondered. "You really miss him."
"Yeah." She sighed. What else could she say? That was all there was to it.
Ken reached for his glasses. "I have to go, Yolei. I'm not upset, but I don't have all day to waste."
"It's one o'clock?" she asked.
"Past that. I have matters that need attended to."
She nodded as he stood. Before he got past, she reached out and caught his hand.
He bristled and blushed and reveled in it all at once. "What is it?"
"You *will* be back tomorrow, won't you?"
"You wouldn't like it if I missed a day? Would it matter to you?"
"...yes..." Yolei blushed and let go of his hand. "Yes, it would."
"Then I will never miss a day. Ever."
He walked out without another word, and she heard the outer door click.
Yolei knew she couldn't let it go on, but at the same time she knew she couldn't stop it.
She started crying.
Crying for him. Crying because he had been so hurt--emotionally, not physically. Crying because it had left him vulnerable to the corruption that had made him the Kaiser. Crying because everything was so wrong!
Why couldn't Ken have joined Tai and the others? Or why couldn't something else have threatened the Digital World six years ago, and Ken become a DigiDestined at the same time as she, Cody and Davis? Why had Sam died? None of it would have happened if Sam's death had not been so untimely.
~Great. Now I'm mad at a guy I never met. Don't know what he looks like. Don't know a thing about him except his name and his relation to Ken.~
She continued to cry.
Finally Kari came in. "Yolei?"
Yolei set her glasses on the table and wiped her eyes the best she could. She knew they were still red and puffy, and that her glasses were wet. There was no hiding it. "Come on in, Kari."
"I can only give you so much advice."
"I don't want advice anymore. I just want a listening ear."
"That," Kari said, "I can do."
Yolei sniffled, wiped her glasses, and put them back on.
Kari watched her in silence for a few minutes. ~As usual, I have to get her started.~ "I was kind of wondering why Ken was smiling when he left."
Yolei blushed. "We managed not to argue. He told me what happened to his brother. We talked. We had what could be classified as a meaningful conversation."
Kari nodded.
Yolei hung her head. "I don't know what you'll think of me for telling me this, but I'm going to be honest with you."
"Spill," Kari said. "I want to hear."
Yolei smiled, and then grimaced. She was sure that after she did spill, Kari would say she'd rather not have known. "Well, he left at one like always. But he was kind of reluctant. I asked if he'd be back tomorrow, and I told him--directly told him, Kari, not insinuated--that it would bother me if he missed a day."
Kari blinked. "Yolei, you're not kidding. I know it would. You are *falling* for him."
Yolei hung her head.
"That's not necessarily bad. I just think you're treading coals and you had better watch your step so you don't fall on your face."
Yolei nodded. "You're not upset?" she ventured.
"It's hard to stop a heart. I can't get mad at you for the way you are, the fact that you fall in love. There's no point fighting it."
Yolei nodded, smiling gratefully. "But will you still say that if the relationship ends up becoming serious?"
"Why would that make a difference?" Kari retorted.
"Thank you." Yolei smiled at her friend. "I want to think, so I'll be in my room if anyone needs me."
Ken sat, trying to concentrate.
He was thinking of Yolei instead of keeping his mind on what he was doing--or rather, trying to do.
~Is it possible that she cares about me? She was asking me about me. Nobody ever did that before. And she seemed genuinely interested in the answers. I guess it's possible. But then, the other side of the coin is this: do I care about her?~
Ken settled deeper into his chair. He knew the answer was yes. He did care about her.
~You're going soft. You shouldn't care about her at all.~
But he did. He couldn't help himself. Her opinions of him mattered to her. He cared about how she felt. He cared about how she was, physically. He cared what happened to her.
He knew she was his prisoner, but he wanted her to be as happy as possible.
And suddenly, he wanted *her* to know all of that.
~What could I possibly do for her that would convince her of this? What could I do as an expression of these feelings?~
Their conversation, ended so abruptly, came back to him. ~"You know, you shouldn't kick Wormmon around like you do. If I could start over and choose to either be normal and never know of the Digital World, or to have spent those few weeks with Hawkmon, I'd choose battling you by his side all over again." "Really? Your friendship with Hawkmon was that deep?" "*Is* that deep. We were separated for six years and we hit it off immediately at Kari's wedding."~ He sighed. ~She misses Hawkmon. She would love nothing more than to have him with her. But I can't do that, he'd have to wear a Dark Spiral, and that would do her no good, and if I took it off they'd surely escape. There's no way to compromise...or is there?~
Sometimes, Ken even amazed himself.
Yolei stared at the ceiling, laying across her bed. She'd told Kari she wanted to think, but in truth, she wanted the exact opposite. She wanted a break from all these heavy choices and realizations. These things were shattering the world as she had known it, and all she wanted was to have a bit of time where she didn't have to worry about it, but she could not think of anything else. It was constantly on her mind.
~Okay. The facts are this. I'm falling for Ken. He's falling for me. I technically should not fall for him. By all rights, I am his prisoner, even if this is the cushiest prison ever built. But, if I do let him love me, and I love him back, there's a chance that he can be gotten to go back to his old ways. To being kind. To give up the empire.~
She sighed. Glancing at her nightstand, she saw the rose he had given her. Now colored black in its dryness, it was stiff and brittle. Its texture made Yolei think of potpourri. ~Did he mean that as a way of showing that he loves me?~
Such girlish thoughts. She felt almost like she had never left the "real" world, like she was still fifteen. Fifteen had been a good year for her--it had brought her Hawkmon. She'd had her few weeks of pure bliss. She hadn't realized it until after they were over, until she had been brought to this prison, but those had been the happiest days of her life. At times she strained to remember what it was like before Hawkmon. Before Ken had started this whole mess, she and Cody had been discussing his eighth birthday party. Someone had started a food fight. Cody had paused, and asked, "Where was Armadillomon? Surely he would have been right in the heat of the...'battle'..." They had both paused to think about that before they remembered that they had yet to meet their digimon back then.
~Hawkmon...come back...I miss you...~
Ken was up late into the night again, but he wasn't laying in bed. He was working on his latest project.
"Master," Wormmon dared.
"What is it?" Ken asked, stress in his voice, hand going for his whip.
"It's very late...I think maybe you should come to bed."
Ken paused. It wasn't "You should come to bed." It had been prefaced by "maybe", thereby making it no more than Wormmon's opinion. He brought his hand up, away from his whip, and typed in a code on his main computer.
"Go ahead and lay down on my bed and go to sleep. I'll be there as soon as I finish here for the night." Ken watched out of the corner of his eye as Wormmon crawled out of the room. "By the way," he called over his shoulder. "It might be a few hours. And you'll have some work awaiting you in the morning."
A/N: For once we end with Ken, not Yolei. I could have gone on a little longer, but to go to the next decent stopping point would have been to double this chapter's length. Review, and tune in next time.
A/N: Things are going to get interesting in this chapter...
The next day at lunch, the DigiDestined were as silent as usual in Ken's presence. Yolei only picked at her food. After the others left, she took her tray and sat next to him.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asked, as if she was invading his space.
"You looked lonely. There's no one else for me to talk to."
"Talk?" Ken choked. "Since when do *you* want to talk to *me*?"
She shrugged. "Well, okay, if you'd rather I left--"
"No, no, it's all right. In fact, I order you to sit right there."
She smiled. "Fine."
There was a pause.
Ken tilted her head at her. "What did you want to talk about?"
"I dunknow. You pick."
"Well, there's so little to talk about that would interest you..."
"What do you *think*?"
Ken frowned. "Huh?"
"What do you *think*? How do you *feel* about things? Tell me about *you*."
"Well, that's a new one. No one ever asked me about me. At least, not what I liked or what I thought. They asked plenty of questions about being a genius, though."
"Well, I don't want to know about that. I want to know about *you*."
The thought was completely new and different for Ken. ~She cares about *me*.~ He had to go along with this. He was too curious and too encouraged to pass it up. "What do you want to know about me?"
Yolei sighed. "Try anything pre-DigiWorld in your life."
Ken nodded. He took off his glasses and laid them on the table in front of him.
It unnerved Yolei. Those eyes of his. When he looked at her, she could feel him probing into her, trying to read the emotions that flickered in her eyes, and yet she could not tear herself away from his gaze.
"I was just an average kid. Things went wrong in my life, and I started studying hard. I found out about the Digital World, and--oh." He stopped mid-sentence at her frown. "I guess the story would be more interesting if there was more detail."
"Yes." She nodded. "Wormmon mentioned that you had...an older brother."
Ken sat back in his chair. Wormmon had spilled. ~I *did* tell him to be honest.~ It had been a long time since he allowed himself to dwell on the memories. "Osamu..." he said, quietly.
"Is that his name?"
"Osamu. My brother. We called him Sam."
Yolei nodded. "That's what Wormmon called him. Go on. What was he like?"
Ken sighed. "He was older than me. Four years older than me. And he was a genius for real. He didn't have to work at it like I did. My parents favored him because he was so smart and everyone paid attention to him. Sometimes the two of us got along great, but whenever he was the center of attention, I hated him. I wished he would just disappear." He stopped again. He expected Yolei to be staring daggers at him.
She was looking at him sympathetically. "I have--had, I don't know what's happened since we came here--three siblings. I know exactly how you must have felt."
Ken nodded. That made sense. "A digivice came out of his computer. He thought it was his but it was mine. He put it in a drawer, but as soon as he left the room, I got it out and touched it. I traveled to the DigiWorld, but I was only there for a little while. I came back and no time had passed. Sam caught me messing with 'his' gadget and yelled at me. He hit it out of my hand and said he couldn't trust me. From that time on, I always hated him." Ken stopped again. It was good for effect, and he wanted to say this right. He couldn't make himself appear weak. "And then, the accident happened. He fell off our balcony. Fell three stories onto the sidewalk."
Yolei gasped. "Oh, Ken...I'm so sorry."
Ken sneered. "Not as sorry as I was. I wasn't even in the room with the balcony when it happened, but I heard my mother scream and I knew something had happened to him. The ambulance came and took him away. It's kind of a blur--I was young. All I know is that after they closed the doors of that ambulance, I never saw him again. Just his photo on top of his coffin."
"Oh, Ken..." she sniffled. "I really am sorry..."
"You pity me. I don't want your pity." He stood, but she reached out and grabbed his arm. "What is it?" he asked.
"Please, sit. Don't go just yet. We've finally both decided that we want to get along. So now we ought to try it. Neither of us should go off on a tangent and walk out the minute the other crosses a line."
He considered that. ~She's right...~ something inside whispered. ~Why not listen to her this time? It would be the strong thing to do, to settle differences instead of running from them.~ He sat. "Okay. But I don't want your pity."
"I don't pity you. I'm sorry that bad things had to happen and hurt you. I'm sorry just like I would be for Kari, or Cody, or T.K. or even Davis."
"You consider me that close?"
Yolei turned away, blushing furiously. ~I do...but he can't know that now...~ She had been more comfortable discussing things past than things present.
"I think this getting along stuff would be easier if we were both honest," Ken said.
She turned toward him and blinked.
He continued. "But neither one of us wants to admit anything."
"We can go on talking about the past. It was happier, for me at least."
Ken pondered. "All right, the past it is, until we gain courage to be brutally honest all the time. And at times, it was happier for me, too. I think. Anyway. Sam was gone. My parents were upset and paid *less* attention to me than ever. Until I started trying to be like Sam. I became a boy genius and suddenly I was their world."
"But the Digital World--?"
"Oh, that. I came here and realized that the Digivice *was* mine and not Sam's. For once something was truly mine. And those feelings evolved into the Empire I have now."
Yolei shook her head. "The Digivice, Digimon, and the state of being chosen to protect the Digital World weren't enough?"
"No."
"Wait--when was this?"
"Around the time the first group came to the DigiWorld. Kamiya and the others. Even then I was planning. It took me several more years of work to get things right."
"So you're saying that you could have joined the DigiDestined back then? Helped them at those various times they had to come and fix things after Apocalymon?"
"I could have. But why *would* I have?"
"Just curious."
He looked at her pointedly. "If I *had* joined them, I would have never become Kaiser."
"You talk like that's a bad thing."
Ken rolled his eyes. "Don't you see? If I had not become Kaiser, you, Cody, and Davis would be living your normal lives."
"Do you think I don't miss it?"
Ken sighed. He raked his fingers through his hair, and looked back up at her. "Not *that* normal life. You never would have gotten Digivices! No Digimon! No DigiDestined! You would be like you were before you knew you were DigiDestined! You would be a normal person."
It dawned on Yolei. She had never thought of that. To have no Kaiser meant to have never met Hawkmon--
They had only been together from the start of the school year until mid-November, but they had grown so close. They were best friends.
She hated this imprisonment, but to have never met Hawkmon! To have been normal! She abhorred the thought. And she decided to tell Ken. In a roundabout way that might get to him. "You know, you shouldn't kick Wormmon around like you do. If I could start over and choose to either be normal and never know of the Digital World, or to have spent those few weeks with Hawkmon, I'd choose battling you by his side all over again."
Ken blinked. "Really? Your friendship with Hawkmon was that deep?"
"*Is* that deep. We were separated for six years and we hit it off immediately at Kari's wedding."
Ken pondered. "You really miss him."
"Yeah." She sighed. What else could she say? That was all there was to it.
Ken reached for his glasses. "I have to go, Yolei. I'm not upset, but I don't have all day to waste."
"It's one o'clock?" she asked.
"Past that. I have matters that need attended to."
She nodded as he stood. Before he got past, she reached out and caught his hand.
He bristled and blushed and reveled in it all at once. "What is it?"
"You *will* be back tomorrow, won't you?"
"You wouldn't like it if I missed a day? Would it matter to you?"
"...yes..." Yolei blushed and let go of his hand. "Yes, it would."
"Then I will never miss a day. Ever."
He walked out without another word, and she heard the outer door click.
Yolei knew she couldn't let it go on, but at the same time she knew she couldn't stop it.
She started crying.
Crying for him. Crying because he had been so hurt--emotionally, not physically. Crying because it had left him vulnerable to the corruption that had made him the Kaiser. Crying because everything was so wrong!
Why couldn't Ken have joined Tai and the others? Or why couldn't something else have threatened the Digital World six years ago, and Ken become a DigiDestined at the same time as she, Cody and Davis? Why had Sam died? None of it would have happened if Sam's death had not been so untimely.
~Great. Now I'm mad at a guy I never met. Don't know what he looks like. Don't know a thing about him except his name and his relation to Ken.~
She continued to cry.
Finally Kari came in. "Yolei?"
Yolei set her glasses on the table and wiped her eyes the best she could. She knew they were still red and puffy, and that her glasses were wet. There was no hiding it. "Come on in, Kari."
"I can only give you so much advice."
"I don't want advice anymore. I just want a listening ear."
"That," Kari said, "I can do."
Yolei sniffled, wiped her glasses, and put them back on.
Kari watched her in silence for a few minutes. ~As usual, I have to get her started.~ "I was kind of wondering why Ken was smiling when he left."
Yolei blushed. "We managed not to argue. He told me what happened to his brother. We talked. We had what could be classified as a meaningful conversation."
Kari nodded.
Yolei hung her head. "I don't know what you'll think of me for telling me this, but I'm going to be honest with you."
"Spill," Kari said. "I want to hear."
Yolei smiled, and then grimaced. She was sure that after she did spill, Kari would say she'd rather not have known. "Well, he left at one like always. But he was kind of reluctant. I asked if he'd be back tomorrow, and I told him--directly told him, Kari, not insinuated--that it would bother me if he missed a day."
Kari blinked. "Yolei, you're not kidding. I know it would. You are *falling* for him."
Yolei hung her head.
"That's not necessarily bad. I just think you're treading coals and you had better watch your step so you don't fall on your face."
Yolei nodded. "You're not upset?" she ventured.
"It's hard to stop a heart. I can't get mad at you for the way you are, the fact that you fall in love. There's no point fighting it."
Yolei nodded, smiling gratefully. "But will you still say that if the relationship ends up becoming serious?"
"Why would that make a difference?" Kari retorted.
"Thank you." Yolei smiled at her friend. "I want to think, so I'll be in my room if anyone needs me."
Ken sat, trying to concentrate.
He was thinking of Yolei instead of keeping his mind on what he was doing--or rather, trying to do.
~Is it possible that she cares about me? She was asking me about me. Nobody ever did that before. And she seemed genuinely interested in the answers. I guess it's possible. But then, the other side of the coin is this: do I care about her?~
Ken settled deeper into his chair. He knew the answer was yes. He did care about her.
~You're going soft. You shouldn't care about her at all.~
But he did. He couldn't help himself. Her opinions of him mattered to her. He cared about how she felt. He cared about how she was, physically. He cared what happened to her.
He knew she was his prisoner, but he wanted her to be as happy as possible.
And suddenly, he wanted *her* to know all of that.
~What could I possibly do for her that would convince her of this? What could I do as an expression of these feelings?~
Their conversation, ended so abruptly, came back to him. ~"You know, you shouldn't kick Wormmon around like you do. If I could start over and choose to either be normal and never know of the Digital World, or to have spent those few weeks with Hawkmon, I'd choose battling you by his side all over again." "Really? Your friendship with Hawkmon was that deep?" "*Is* that deep. We were separated for six years and we hit it off immediately at Kari's wedding."~ He sighed. ~She misses Hawkmon. She would love nothing more than to have him with her. But I can't do that, he'd have to wear a Dark Spiral, and that would do her no good, and if I took it off they'd surely escape. There's no way to compromise...or is there?~
Sometimes, Ken even amazed himself.
Yolei stared at the ceiling, laying across her bed. She'd told Kari she wanted to think, but in truth, she wanted the exact opposite. She wanted a break from all these heavy choices and realizations. These things were shattering the world as she had known it, and all she wanted was to have a bit of time where she didn't have to worry about it, but she could not think of anything else. It was constantly on her mind.
~Okay. The facts are this. I'm falling for Ken. He's falling for me. I technically should not fall for him. By all rights, I am his prisoner, even if this is the cushiest prison ever built. But, if I do let him love me, and I love him back, there's a chance that he can be gotten to go back to his old ways. To being kind. To give up the empire.~
She sighed. Glancing at her nightstand, she saw the rose he had given her. Now colored black in its dryness, it was stiff and brittle. Its texture made Yolei think of potpourri. ~Did he mean that as a way of showing that he loves me?~
Such girlish thoughts. She felt almost like she had never left the "real" world, like she was still fifteen. Fifteen had been a good year for her--it had brought her Hawkmon. She'd had her few weeks of pure bliss. She hadn't realized it until after they were over, until she had been brought to this prison, but those had been the happiest days of her life. At times she strained to remember what it was like before Hawkmon. Before Ken had started this whole mess, she and Cody had been discussing his eighth birthday party. Someone had started a food fight. Cody had paused, and asked, "Where was Armadillomon? Surely he would have been right in the heat of the...'battle'..." They had both paused to think about that before they remembered that they had yet to meet their digimon back then.
~Hawkmon...come back...I miss you...~
Ken was up late into the night again, but he wasn't laying in bed. He was working on his latest project.
"Master," Wormmon dared.
"What is it?" Ken asked, stress in his voice, hand going for his whip.
"It's very late...I think maybe you should come to bed."
Ken paused. It wasn't "You should come to bed." It had been prefaced by "maybe", thereby making it no more than Wormmon's opinion. He brought his hand up, away from his whip, and typed in a code on his main computer.
"Go ahead and lay down on my bed and go to sleep. I'll be there as soon as I finish here for the night." Ken watched out of the corner of his eye as Wormmon crawled out of the room. "By the way," he called over his shoulder. "It might be a few hours. And you'll have some work awaiting you in the morning."
A/N: For once we end with Ken, not Yolei. I could have gone on a little longer, but to go to the next decent stopping point would have been to double this chapter's length. Review, and tune in next time.