Ken9

The Dark Bandit

Part Nine

The group stared at its visitor with wide eyes.

"Koushiro, you could get in serious trouble for this," Yamato warned him.

The redheaded wizard shrugged and walked past the boy into the room. He noted the sleeping Princess with a nod. "So this is where she has been taken," he commented.

"Yes," Takeru replied. "The guards seemed to think the deal she made was no longer valid. They came and took Daisuke shortly after she was brought here."

The wizard frowned. "I suspected such might happen," he confessed. "Daisuke is too valuable to the King at the moment."

Yamato nodded. "Indeed," he agreed.

Koushiro nodded in response. Suddenly, his eyes shifted to Miyako, who was standing almost behind Ken, confused and shy. "We have not met, have we?" he asked the girl, stepping forward.

Miyako shook her head. "No, we have not, sir," she replied politely, forcing herself to step away from the boy.

He nodded again. "No, I did not think so. I am Izumi Koushiro. A wizard, as you may have noticed."

"I did indeed," she replied, deciding that he was rather interesting after all. She'd never met a real wizard before.

"Koushiro, Miyako," Ken introduced, since she was too confused to really know what to do.

The girl blushed slightly at her impoliteness and nodded. "Inoue Miyako," she clarified, holding out a hand to shake. With a grin, the wizard smiled and took her hand in his own, kissing it lightly as he bowed. Miyako only blushed even more furiously.

"Inoue, ey?" he repeated. "I met your sisters once, I believe."

She nodded. "I have two sisters," she confirmed. "And one brother."

"Ah. So I've heard. He was too old for me to teach," he explained. He turned away from her. "But this is not the information I seek."

"Or bring," Sora reminded him. "You said you were bringing information as well."

"Indeed I did," the young wizard agreed. He reached into his pouch and removed a small sheet of paper. Squinting at the small words, he read silently from his list for a moment before he replied.

"I have no proof of what I say. It is only speculation. Iori and Jyou agree with me on several of these points." He paused for effect. "First, we believe that you are all in grave danger. We also think that the King will not keep you in such luxurious surroundings."

Miyako shuddered quietly at the thought of being transported to a dank, dirty, dark dungeon with spiders and rats crawling about.

"Ech," Takeru agreed with her thoughts.

"I doubt he will keep us together more than a few days," Yamato spoke up. Ken and Sora agreed with him, unsurprisingly.

The redheaded wizard nodded once again. "Secondly, Jyou believes that he may have some sort of illness which affects his mind." He frowned. "I'm not quite certain of that. I think the King may be under some sort of influence. He certainly does not seem like himself."

"He doesn't," Sora agreed. "I have known Taichi since I was small, and his father as long. He was always kind and gentle. This does not seem like him at all."

"Iori believes, however, that the King's sense of unwavering justice may have backfired, and he is perfectly sane and in control."

"That's possible, too," Yamato agreed.

"What sort of influence could the King be under?" Miyako wondered.

Koushiro shrugged slightly. "A spell of some sort?" he suggested. "Perhaps one of the nobles was able to exert a large amount of influence over him?"

"I doubt that," Takeru commented. "The King's opinions are quite strong. He's rather difficult to convince if you disagree with him."

"Very true," Koushiro agreed. "Third, I have learned, through Iori, of the King's interest in your digimon."

That statement caused every eye to be upon the wizard at once. "Well, what is it?" Yamato demanded of him.

"Well, as you know, we have been working hard to try to understand the true nature of digimon. For a long time, learned peoples have tried to classify them and explain precisely what they are. Everyone is bonded with one from an early age. They are constant companions and loyal friends. From many battles we have learned that when one is killed, the other can no longer survive. As the bond increases, the time that partners can be separated decreases."

The others nodded. They had heard all of this before.

"It is often believed that the bond between partners is strongest in adolescence," the young wizard continued. "The stage which we are all at right now." He paused and glanced at his paper again. "I'm sure you are all aware that they were classified eventually into three different groups?"

"Data, Virus, and Vaccine," Sora recited obediently. "What of it?"

Koushiro nodded. "There are also varying levels of strength in a digimon." He paused momentarily to collect his thoughts. "As you know, when two humans mate, one of their digimon will then produce an egg, which will be their child's digimon. When a digimon first hatches, it is in its weakest state, its' baby form."

"Makes sense," Miyako agreed. "Human babies are very weak and vulnerable when first born."

The wizard nodded in approval before he continued. "As the human child matures, so does the digimon. Most change form, or evolve, at least twice more before adulthood. For example, when my digimon, Tentomon, was first hatched, he was Babumon. When I reached five, he evolved into a Motimon. When I was twelve, he evolved once more. The second stage, Motimon, is the fresh stage. The third is commonly called a child stage, but most digimon do not evolve past that."

"There's a stage beyond that?" Takeru asked in surprise.

"The King's digimon is an evolved stage digimon," Yamato informed his brother.

Koushiro nodded. "Indeed. Leomon is at what is known as the Adult stage."

"How is it the King is able to have such a high-level digimon?" Sora questioned. "Most people have child stage, right?"

He nodded once more. "There are only a few people in the entire world that have had an adult stage digimon," he explained. "Our King is the only one in this territory. It is most likely at least part of the reason why he rules."

"Who else has an adult stage digimon?" Ken wondered.

"No one who's alive," the wizard replied. "There's an old legend about people a long time ago who were able to evolve their digimon even higher than adult stage, but it's very old and the true details have been obscured in strange myths. Digimon past adult stage have not been seen in many lifetimes. Some believe they are merely legends that were made up to amuse youngsters."

"So if we were to fight against him, we'd be defeated badly," Yamato translated.

"Precisely. An adult stage digimon is infinitely more powerful than a child."

"Terrific," Sora muttered sarcastically.

"Koushiro, how were those old digimon able to evolve higher?" Miyako wondered.

Koushiro shrugged. "That's the part of the story that gets confusing. It's said that the human partners utilized strengths that were inside themselves. But it varies on precisely how they accessed them. Some stories say artifacts from an even older time were used. Pendants with magical powers. Others say strange devices with symbols on them. And other versions claim they used something called a Digimental, which allowed them to utilize the power inside them to protect their digimon as well as fight with them. The stories are old. It's uncertain of which is the truth."

"So we probably won't be able to do it the way they did," Takeru said with a sigh.

Koushiro shook his head. "It is doubtful."

"So, what does the King plan to do with our digimon?" Sora wondered.

Koushiro glanced at his piece of paper once more to collect his thoughts. "I think that he may be trying to evolve his digimon to a higher stage," he stated. "It's possible that he may try to de-evolve your digimon in hopes that his own will be able to use the leftover energy."

There was a gasp from the others. "Is that possible?" Yamato questioned skeptically.

"There are old spells," Koushiro answered. "They haven't been used in hundreds of years. Long ago, to weaken your enemy, wizards would cast a de-evolve spell and their enemies would return to their baby stages. It was a hard spell to cast, however, and it only worked on limited amounts of digimon. It was abandoned as a useful spell many years ago."

"Does the King have the ability to cast such a spell?" Miyako asked.

"The King has a library of many books – magic and otherwise - in his possession as well as at least ten other wizards beside myself. If he was unable to persuade me, he could quite easily manage to convince one of them."

No one answered. It was obvious the King was much more powerful than they were. Even if all their digimon combined attacks, they still would not be able to defeat Leomon at his current stage. But if he was able to evolve further? Only if even one of them were able to evolve further would it be remotely possible to defeat the King.

***

Taichi struck the wall once more with the heavy rock. His head hurt from the noise, and his arms were tired from banging. His weakened state made the work even harder than it would usually have been. But he was making progress. The crack in the wall had gotten larger.

"Daisuke," he called through the crack. He could almost see light on the other side. "Daisuke, can you hear me?" There was no response. With a groan of slight defeat, the Prince lowered his arm and permitted himself to rest. He was tired of banging.

The door to his cell swung open and a few guards entered. Quickly, Taichi repositioned the large rock so that the crack wouldn't be visible. None of them noticed it as they dragged him from the room.

***

Daisuke licked the blood from his lips and then groaned as he felt another punch make contact with his abdomen. His head was aching, his whole body was screaming in pain. Before he could stop himself, he whispered: "Please, stop."

The guard nearest him paused momentarily. Daisuke blinked. Then felt his head nearly explode as he gripped his skull and slammed it into the wall.

"Are you ready to talk?" he growled in his ear, making the pain even worse.

'Not going to give in. I can't,' Daisuke thought. The guard slapped him, hard, across the face.

"Are you going to talk or not?" the guard growled again.

'All the pain would stop if I did,' Daisuke reminded himself. 'It would be so much easier. But I can't. I can't give in. I can't take much more, but I can do it. I know I can. I have to.'

The guard had given up on getting an intelligible response from his prisoner. Quickly he pulled his arm back and prepared to punch him in the stomach once more. Daisuke winced in expectant pain.

"That's enough," a stern voice snapped. Daisuke heaved a visible sigh when the fist broke off and there was no more pain. He looked up, and blinked in surprise when he saw the King standing in the doorway of his cell.

"He still won't talk," the guard informed him.

"I'm aware," the King replied. "But don't kill him. He's of no use to me if he's dead."

"I wasn't going to kill him, sire."

"Are you disagreeing with me?"

"No, sire."

"Good." He pointed towards the door. "Leave us."

The guard bowed and left the room, shutting the cell door behind him. Daisuke just stared, breathing heavily in an attempt to ease his pain.

"Surely you didn't think that you would be safe, did you?" the King questioned. Daisuke didn't respond. The King sighed a heavy sigh. He reached for the keys attached to his belt and stepped closer to the boy.

Daisuke stared in shock and surprise as the King unshackled him. "What do you want?"

"You know what I want," the King replied, stepping away from him once more. "You won't give it to me."

"That's still no reason to let me go," he reasoned.

"Oh, I have no intention of releasing you. I simply need you alive. Neither you nor your digimon are useful to me dead."

"What do you want with V-mon?" Daisuke gasped in shock.

The King merely shrugged once more as he left the room. "Enjoy the rest, boy," he stated without answering the question. "Soon there will be no more rest for you."

Daisuke didn't like the sound of that, but he wasn't sure what to make of it.

Suddenly, he heard the banging that had been going on for the past few hours stop suddenly. He barely had time to wonder what that meant when he heard a door slam open and then shut again.

***

V-mon was barely conscious, but he managed to open his eyes. "Daisuke?" he whispered. But his partner was not nearby. He knew that much. He was very weak.

"V-mon, you're awake!" Patamon noted cheerfully.

"Are you alright?" Hawkmon questioned.

The little blue digimon groaned and held his head. "I think so," he mumbled. "I'm just really tired."

"That's normal," Piyomon assured him. "You're away from your partner, so you're feeling drained."

"You can say that again." V-mon peered around him. He was in a small cage. There was barely enough room for him to stand, let alone walk around. From the bars he could see that the other digimon were in similar cages, and that the cages were arranged in a circle.

Directly to his right was Hawkmon, and then Wormmon beside him. Then came an empty cage, Piyomon, Agumon, Gabumon, two empty cages in a row, Patamon, another empty cage, and, finally, to the left of V-mon, Tailmon. A quick glance around the room told him that all of the other digimon appeared to be fine, although tired. All, that is, except Agumon, who was still unconscious and looked in worse shape than V-mon did.

"What's the matter with him?"

Gabumon spoke up. "We think that Taichi must be in some sort of pain," he explained. "Daisuke might be, too, if you're so weak."

V-mon nodded worriedly. "Why have we been separated?" he wondered. "That's not right."

"We're not sure," Wormmon answered for the group. "The King might be planning something."

"But why would the King want to hurt his own son?" Piyomon questioned.

"Because his son needs to be taught respect," a deep voice answered. All of the digimon except Agumon gasped in shock. Leomon stood behind V-mon. The little blue digimon turned upward to the massive feline.

"What does he want with us?" Tailmon demanded.

"The King has need of your energies," Leomon stated plainly.

"Our energies?" Patamon was confused. "What use would the King have for our energy?"

Leomon only laughed. "I am the strongest digimon in the land," he boasted, though all knew it to be true. "And soon, I shall be the strongest digimon of all time."

***

Taichi groaned with pain as he was tossed on the floor. As expected, he was in even more pain now than before. He was determined to try to make some sort of contact with Daisuke, however. He crawled to the crack in the wall. He pushed his head up to the side of the wall and moved the rock out of the way.

"Daisuke," he spoke into the wall. His voice was hoarse and sore. He tried to clear his throat, but found it impossible. Incredibly exhausted, the Prince sighed and dropped his head, shutting his eyes and loosing consciousness.

***

Koushiro departed forty-five minutes after his arrival. He would have stayed longer, he explained, but Tentomon would be concerned and he needed to get back. His partner was quite a worrywart.

Hikari awoke shortly after he had left, and the others told her what the wizard had said.

The Princess was not pleased at the news. "If Father wishes to evolve Leomon to a higher stage, there is no way we will be able to stop him. The question is, why?"

No one had a response for that.

"We can't sit around and do nothing!" Miyako protested. "We have to try to stop him."

"Miyako, we don't know how," Sora reminded her.

"There's got to be some way!" She groaned and sat down on the window seat.

"If we could free our digimon," Yamato suggested.

"Yes, but we can't do that, either," Takeru reminded his brother.

"I think anything we should do should wait until tomorrow," Hikari decided. "It's getting late. We need to sleep."

***

A young woman in a pale pink dress was riding in a carriage on its way to the palace. Beside her sat Palmon, a small green digimon with a pink flower on her head.

"I don't like the way this feels at all," Palmon observed. It was dark out, but she and her partner were already three days late for the Princess' birthday, and they were eager to get there as soon as possible.

"I don't either," Mimi Tachikawa agreed with her partner. "I'm not sure why, but I have this

feeling that something isn't right."

"I can't understand it," the flower digimon elaborated. "But there's something wrong."

"Perhaps we should sneak in?" Mimi suggested. Normally, she was not one to suggest such a plan, but she wasn't naïve enough to simply enter the palace when something serious might be going wrong.

"That might be a good idea."

Mimi nodded. "Stop the cart!" she ordered, yelling out the side of the carriage. The driver did so immediately, and she exited. It was foggy and humid that night, and she could feel something inexplicably dark and evil in the air.

A few moments later, after a bit of haggling with the driver, she convinced the servants to head back to the nearest town, about five miles away, and return the following evening with her luggage. She agreed to take a lantern, one small bag of clothes, and a basket of food. Then, still two miles from the palace, the girl and her digimon set off.

Mimi waited until she was positive the carriage had driven off before she began walking. "I'm not so sure about this," she noted quietly after they had been walking for a few moments. "I really don't like walking long distances."

Palmon agreed. "But we don't really have a choice, do we?" she asked.

The girl shook her head. "That's true, we don't. I wish I knew what felt so strange around here."

"So do I," the digimon agreed.

Mimi held the lantern high above her head as they walked along the road. Suddenly, she saw something glowing in the forest. "What's that?"

Palmon squinted into the darkness. "I don't know. Hello? Who's there?"

Only silence answered her shouts. "Should we check it out?" the girl wondered.

The plant digimon shrugged in response. "Why not?" she decided.

Mimi carefully lifted her pink skirts and held the lantern out over her head as she stepped off the path. There did not appear to be any other digimon or people in the area, for which she was quite glad. She had heard that there were wild digimon in the woods near the palace, and she was not sure that she would trust a wild digimon.

The glowing appeared to come from a stump only a few feet from the edge of the forest. Mimi followed the strange light and noted that on top of the stump sat a thick metal box. The glow was coming from inside the box.

"What on earth?" she wondered.

"Open it!" Palmon urged. She could tell that something important was about to happen.

"Alright," Mimi agreed cautiously. She lifted the cover of the box. Inside were a bunch of strange little boxes. They were all a pale blue color with darker sections on them. One of them was emitting a strange white light. Somehow drawn to it, Mimi grasped the little box in her hand. It glowed even brighter.

"What's happening?" the girl gasped. She felt something strange inside of her.

"Mimi!" Palmon cried. "I feel funny."

"Me too," she admitted. The funny little box was making strange high-pitched noises. The light was nearly blinding.

"I feel - stronger," Palmon shouted over the noise and the light. "Mimi! I think I'm going to evolve!"

"Evolve?" Mimi repeated with surprise. Before she could utter another word, however, the light grew even brighter. She shielded her eyes with her free hand.

"Palmon evolve!" she heard her digimon shout. Somehow, through the light, Mimi was able to see her digimon growing larger. A few moments later, the light subsided, and she could see a taller digimon standing there.

"Togemon!" a deep voice shouted. The light dispersed, and now Mimi saw that her digimon had transformed into a tall, thorny plant with strange red gloves on. The girl's eyes grew wide.

"Togemon?" Mimi repeated. "I didn't know you could evolve again."

The large digimon shrugged. "I didn't either," she replied. "Hey, I see something from up here."

"Really? What is it?"

"A house," she replied. "Only there's a funny digimon standing near it."

"Let's head that way," Mimi suggested. "We might find out something about what's going on here that feels so strange."

"What about those?" her newly evolved digimon wondered, pointing towards the metal box and the other strangely shaped little boxes within.

"I suppose we should bring them with us. But I can't carry that box. It's too heavy."

Before Togemon could issue a suggestion, the smaller objects inside began to glow. Soon, they were immersed in strange balls of light and were floating in the air. Then, they zoomed off quickly before either of them could remark.

"Well, that solves that, doesn't it?" Togemon decided.

Mimi shrugged slightly. "Let's go," she decided, heading off in the direction Togemon had indicated the house was in.

***

Night came soon enough. V-mon tried to sleep, but failed. He was worried about Daisuke, and what Leomon had said to them earlier. He was going to be a really, really powerful digimon.

'I wish I could be a really powerful digimon,' V-mon thought to himself. 'Everyone loves powerful digimon. And then I'd be able to get out of here.'

Unfortunately, V-mon didn't know how to become a really powerful digimon. He stared in the direction of the window. The room that he and the other digimon were in was spacious. The walls and floor were polished marble, and the windows were huge, with long, dark green drapes.

Not that the little blue digimon really cared about the décor. He was just trying to keep himself from being too bored.

There was a noise from the window. V-mon turned to the digimon nearest him, Tailmon, and whispered to the cat. "Hey, did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Tailmon grumbled. She wasn't sleeping, but she wasn't in the mood for V-mon's casual conversation.

"I thought I heard a noise at the window," he replied.

Tailmon perked an ear in the direction. "I hear it, too," she replied after listening for a few seconds. "Who do you think it could be?"

"I hope it's someone to get us out of here," Patamon piped up, obviously still awake as well. "Like that Dark Bandit guy."

"It could be just the wind." Piyomon replied sensibly, in the midst of a yawn. "Go back to sleep."

V-mon shook his head. "No, I think there's someone out there," he stated adamantly.

"I think so, too," Tailmon agreed. There was silence for a few moments, followed by a scratching noise at the window. "Hear that?"

"It's probably just a branch scraping the window," Piyomon declared. "Get some sleep." She yawned again, eager to get back to her dream.

"No, I'll bet it's a person," Patamon decided hopefully.

"I don't care if it's the King himself come to eat us for a midnight snack. I'd like to get some sleep," Hawkmon declared. Conversation ceased then, but Patamon, Tailmon, and V-mon continued to watch the window, hoping that it really was someone out there and not just the wind.

***

The door to the chamber slammed open forcefully. Miyako gasped in shock and sat up. "What?"

A row of guards filed in to the chamber, and she felt herself being lifted by two pairs of strong arms. "What's going on?"

The guards remained silent. In the dark, she could hear the others, demanding to know what was happening and where they were being brought. But she could not see clearly. In the back of her mind, she recalled what Yamato had said earlier when Koushiro had come by. That they would not be kept together much longer. Fear gripped her sharply, and she cried out suddenly.

She was dragged – she really could not say that she was led, because her feet tried to move, but she was unable to walk – down a long hallway. In the darkness, she couldn't see where she was being taken. She tried for a few moments to struggle, but quickly discovered that it was not only pointless – as she was helpless against two strong guards – but also that she wouldn't know where to go if she were able to get away.

Miyako could still hear the others. She detected Yamato's voice first, as it was loudest. He was most likely struggling the hardest of them all, and he was certainly making the most noise. Sora shouted a few choice words, but she had been quickly silenced by the same realization as Miyako – that she was helpless. She heard Takeru's voice chiming in with his brother's occasionally.

Hikari spoke a few words as well, but, as with the others, she was ignored by the guards. The group was led down the hall. Miyako realized only then that she had not heard Ken.

At that point fear took hold once more. Had he slipped out in the night? If he had, he was surely in great danger. Most likely, the King would be able to discern that he was, by default, the Dark Bandit. A chill ran down her spine as she was dragged further down an endless flight of stairs.

Eventually, she found herself coming to a halt. There was dim light now, and she was able to make out a door. That same door was then opened, and she was tossed inside rather harshly. With a cry more of surprise than actual pain, she landed face down on a hard floor. Before she could move, the door slammed shut behind her.

It didn't take Miyako long to realize that Koushiro's prediction had come true. They had been separated and moved to the dungeon. Immediately, she thought of Daisuke as she looked around her cell. He'd had to deal with this for a few days. When she remembered what he had looked like when he had first been released, another shudder went down her spine. She certainly hoped that she wouldn't have to go through such torture.

'But I know the same secret Daisuke knows!' she realized. If she was asked for the identity of the Dark Bandit, would she be able to lie and say that she didn't know? Miyako wasn't certain. Of course, such a lie would be considered treason, but she hardly thought that mattered at the moment. The thought of going through the pain that Daisuke had obviously experienced – and possibly was experiencing even now – was something that scared her.

"Hey!" she shouted suddenly, not wanting to sit still now that she had been rudely awakened. "Let me out of here!" There was no response. Not that she'd really expected one. Miyako stood up and made her way to the heavy door. There were a few small bars that covered a smaller window that was just barely large enough to look through. She could see the guards that had brought her there standing down the hall, talking with a larger group of guards.

"Hey!" she repeated, hoping to catch their attention. "You can't leave me here. I haven't done anything! Hello?! Let me out of here!"

Naturally, they continued to ignore her. With a frustrated sigh, Miyako decided to give up for the moment and sit down. Perhaps she would be able to sleep a few more hours tonight.

***

I hope I'm not being too predictable.

What happened to Ken? Is he okay? Will the others get the digivices? (duh, of course they will!) Will the King succeed in his plan? And just what does he want with everyone, anyway? Are you dying of suspense yet?

Koushiro and Mimi finally get a big part! And in the next section, Jyou will get a big part! That's for all the Jyou, Koushiro, and Mimi lovers. ^_^ Yup. I told ya Mimi got to be important. You just had to wait. ^_^

It's almost over, I promise, so thanks for sticking with me this far. I foresee at least two more chapters. Depends on how I manage to break it up. And, like I said in the last chapter, I'm not sure quite yet on how I'll work the ending, so that and what y'all think will determine if there's a sequel. Personally, I think there should be one, but let's wait till I finish this one, k? ^_^ Thanks for everyone who reviewed, I love you all. ^_^

Oh yeah, and I don't own digimon. If I did, it would never have been dubbed.