Authors note: Just to clarify an attack in chapter 11, Kiwimon's real attack is pummel peck. Thank you Digimon Cager. Now that that's done. On with the story.
Chapter 13
One by one, the digidestined materialized. First Tai and Agumon, then Matt and Gabumon, Sora and Biyomon, Davis and Veemon, Izzy and Tentomon, Mimi and Palmon, Kari and Gatomon, Joe and Gomamon and lastly, TK and Patamon. They all observed they're surrounding in confusion. Unlike the dimension they were just in, which had distinct features, this place was completely black. Though there was no visible light source, everyone could see each other perfectly, not to mention the fact that if the digidestined didn't feel the hardness under their feet, it seemed as if they weren't standing on any type of ground.
"This place is even weirder than the night realm." Davis said.
"Do you think we're dead?" Joe asked.
"I hope not." Mimi said.
"Hey. Where's Ken? I mean, if this is the afterlife, wouldn't Ken be here too?" Sora said. Everyone started looking around again, but they saw nothing. Then, a sound started was heard at a distance.
"I hear footsteps." Tai stated. The group went completely silent. Sure enough, quick, echoing footsteps came floating to the digidestined's ears. At first the image was a bit blurred and far away, but soon, the distinct features of a small boy no older than six came into view. The child had short indigo hair and seemed to be looking around for something. When he spotted the digidestined, he walked over and looked up at Kari.
"Have you seen my brother?" The child asked.
"Uhhh... no. What's his name?" Kari asked him.
"Sam. He's really smart and is good at sports." The boy said, bursting with pride. "I was just walking with him, and then I couldn't find him anymore."
The digidestined looked at the child in utter confusion. The boy seemed oblivious to the fact he was in a place that was pitch black.
"Well Toto, we definitely aren't in Kansas anymore." Davis said sarcastically. Tai stepped on Davis's foot very hard.
"Ken!" A voice called out, making the digidestined nearly jump out of their skin. "Kenny, where are you!?"
The boy's face became as bright as a sun.
"Sam!" The boy cried happily as he ran to a figure that walked into view from the blackness. This new kid couldn't be older than twelve and had blue hair and glasses. The digidestined did a double take as they looked at this boy, for he looked exactly like the digimon Kaiser. However, the younger boy, Ken, did not seem to care and instead went right up and hugged Sam around the waist.
"I'm sorry Sam. I didn't mean to lose you." Ken said as he looked up at his brother Sam with a bright smile. "You won't go anywhere again, right?"
Sam patted Ken on the head and looked down at him with a small frown. Sam then gave a slow shake of his head.
"I think you know the answer to that one, Kenny." Sam said gravely. Ken's smile dropped like a thousand-pound bag of stones.
"No." Ken whimpered softly and buried his head in Sam's stomach. The digidestined were quiet. Something told them this was important and not to interfere.
"Yes. You know why this is, don't you." Sam asked the small boy and he nodded. Sam took a step backwards and pushed himself out of Ken's grip. "Bye Kenny-boy."
The six-year-older boy looked absolutely devastated as Sam waved and walked away. Ken stared at his retreating back until it was lost in the darkness. Then he started to cry softly.
"So is that really Ken Ichijouji? I mean, I don't think he has a brother." Sora asked. Kari walked over to the boy and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Why would someone just abandon his brother?" Kari asked.
"He didn't." A familiar voice said. There was a gleam of sunglasses then the real, presently Kaiser dressed Ken Ichijouji came out of the blackness with Wormmon at his feet. "He died. You see, digidestined, this is my... worst nightmare. I don't know how and I don't know why, but for some reason, you're witnessing this. Feel privileged, not even my parent's know about these."
Older Ken walked over and rubbed his younger self on the head.
"So you had a brother?"
Older Ken sighed wearily. He took off his glasses and looked at his comrades for a second. His eyes were red and tired.
"Yeah. I did. Until it happened." Ken said softly and with sadness none of the digidestined had ever heard. TK opened his mouth to ask what it was, but the dimension seemed responded to Ken's thoughts and all of the sudden, they were on a street in Tamachi, Tokyo. Now both older and young Ken were staring at a car that was coming down the road at tremendous speed.
"KEN! WATCH OUT!" A voice said and everyone turned except the Ken's to see Sam running out. The driver in the car must have realized he was going to hit the Ken's because he swerved. Unfortunately, by doing so the car slammed dead center into Sam. Mimi and Kari both covered their eyes and turned away while the other digidestined instantly had sad, shocked looks on their face. The Ken's simply looked on in awe as the force of the car being so close to them made their hair ripple and there was a hollow thud as Sam's body hit the ground. Both of them stared at the body as the image faded into darkness again.
"Ken I... I had no idea." Matt said, still in a state of shock.
"Spare me your sympathy, Ishida." Older Ken said harshly, looking at the spot that had shown Sam's body.
"It's terrible, isn't it? I mean, of course it's terrible to lose someone like that, but you keep blaming yourself, don't you?" Tai said, staring holes into the taller Ken.
"What are you, a psychic?" Older Ken snorted. Tai shook his head.
"I went through the same when Kari got sick."
Instead of replying, Ken simply sat down on the floor and in a monotone voice, started chanting two words. The smaller version of Ken mirrored those movements, but did not speak.
"My fault.... my fault... my fault..." Older Ken said softly.
"Ken? Ken!?" Kari said, snapping her finger in the Kaiser's face. He made no movements of acknowledgment. She stumbled backwards as a black aura surrounded him. Sora and Matt looked at each other and nodded. Joe saw that and groaned.
"Not this again. I thought we had seen the last of that darkness four years ago." Joe said. Everyone else gave the three of them confused looks.
"When we split up during the time when we were fighting the dark masters, something strange happened to Sora and me." Matt explained. "We were trapped in this dark cave that had no end, but we were able to get out of it by believing in ourselves. We, or at least Sora, was surrounded by a dark aura that looks exactly like that. Unless we get Ken out of this state soon, we may be stuck here for a very long time."
Tai's eyes widened a little at the possibility of being stuck here, but then rushed over to the Kaiser and started to try every method to get him out of his trance.
"KEN! WAKE UP!" Tai said loudly in Ken's ear while Matt and Joe tried to make Ken stand up. Both methods failed miserably.
"He can't hear you." The smaller Ken suddenly said.
"What... I thought... How can you talk?" Mimi stammered.
"Just because he's repeating one phrase over and over like an imbecile doesn't mean I have to." Small Ken said, looking up with sad eyes.
"But I thought you are the same person." Tai said. Everyone had stopped working on older Ken when the smaller version of him spoke.
"Not really." Young Ken said simply.
"So what are you. His innocence?" Kari asked.
"God no. I'd hate to be his innocence. It must be the size of a molecule by now." Little Ken said, cracking one of the famous Kaiser smiles.
"Ooookaaaaay. You're making jokes about yourself." Davis said sarcastically. "What a great way to heighten your self-esteem."
"Actually, I'm not. As some of you have already figured out, you are trapped in the mind of Ken Ichijouji. In this dimension, the sub-conscious mind is separated from the conscious one. The person you see in front of you is the digimon Kaiser." Little Ken said, pointing to his other self. "Think of me as the little nagging voice in the back of your head. I'm the last hope you have of getting out of here sane, so listen closely. You must make Ken wake up, and the only way to do that is get him out of this dark trance. Since you already have three comrades experienced in this area, it won't be much of a problem. But be warned, your enemy lies close, watching your moves. If he figures out that you are waking up, he will kill you without a second thought."
"There's one problem." Joe said hysterically. "Ken can't hear us!"
"The Kaiser can't, but I can. Ken can talk through his memories and me. Remember that you are in his mind. Ken can manipulate dimension as he pleases." Little Ken said.
"But how can we solve something we don't understand." Sora asked. Little Ken just shrugged.
"I don't think he understands himself. Ever since the dark ocean he's-" Younger Ken said.
"The dark ocean? Ken's been there?" Kari asked frantically
"Uh huh. Why do you ask.?" Young Ken said.
"I've been there. But why'd he go to that awful place." Kari said. Ken shrugged again.
"His brother, I guess. He was incredibly depressed after the incident, so I guess opening a dark gate was easy at that time. Though I am a little surprised he was able to open it two years after it happened." Young Ken said.
"What happened there?" TK asked. Then, like before, the pitch-black surroundings morphed into a certain memory, specifically, the Dark ocean. As if he was acting in a play, young Ken too out his digivice and dipped it into the water. When he took it out, it had changed into the infamous dark D-3 of the digimon Kaiser. The dark ocean faded, but younger Ken stayed there, holding the wet digivice.
"I think you know what happened next." Small Ken said flatly, looking at the item in his hand.
"Something doesn't add up. Even if you are depressed, that doesn't mean you can become a Nazi overnight. And the dark ocean, with all its power, can't change your digivice." TK inquired.
"Well duh!" Young ken said, which was very weird; seeing a six-year-old being sarcastic to an eleven-year-old. "Something's controlling the great Kaiser and it isn't Vexilmon. Why do you think he chose Ichijouji's mind to trap you all in. Ken's already trapped in his own mind with grief."
Tai could not believe what he just heard.
"Ken has to stop blaming himself for the death of his brother." Tai exclaimed, putting his hands on the shoulders of the young child so that they were looking eye to eye.
"What's the point? Vexilmon might as well kill us now." Little Ken said.
"You want him to win?"
"No. But what happens if we defeat him. Do you know how much information he's given you? Everything about the rings and spirals only he and the worm knew until now. We're done for!" The juvenile ken cried. The Kaiser also stopped chanting and sat quietly. "Everything will be different now! How can you believe things will be fine?!"
"Because they will be! Do you really think we want to fight you? Its not like we're in a video game and we're doing this for fun." Sora cried. "We can be your friends!"
The Kaisers eyes flickered behind his glasses.
"I don't have...I don't need any friends." The Kaiser said quietly.
Mimi walked over to the older version of Ken.
"How can you say that?! Don't you have a soul?!" Mimi exclaimed. She arched her hand toward the sitting Kaiser's face as the others came next to her. However, a few inches before she reached his face, some sort of shield made her hand bounce back with the same force she had thrown at it and her hand flew backwards and whacked Matt in the face.
"Ow!" Matt yelped as he rubbed his jaw. "What the heck happened?"
"Nice try." The small Ken said with a small laugh. "But unless he wants you to, you won't be able to touch the Kaiser."
"Wait a nano, how was he able to respond to us?" Izzy said, realizing something. "I thought you said he couldn't hear us?"
As impulsive as ever, Tai started to shake the small boy.
"What's going on!?" Tai exclaimed.
"Hey, hey. Don't shoot the messenger. Like I said before, I'm only his sub-conscious and in this dimension I'm not completely connected to the Ken we all know and love." The little Ken said with a hint of sarcasm. "However, it seems that you are obviously convincing him of something, because he can now hear you, but barely. And I do stress barely."
That was all Sora and Matt needed to hear. The both of them, in hope of helping Ken the same way their friends helped them, walked over to the Kaiser. Sora actually pressed her hands on the invisible shield.
"Ken, we're counting on you. You have to get over the fact that your brother is dead. If you keep blaming yourself then you'll be lost forever in the darkness." Matt said sternly. "We can help, but you have to wake up or everything that has happened will be for nothing. At least do it for the memory of your brother."
"That's a very low blow, even for you Ishida. And way too sappy." The Kaiser said quietly.
"Ken, please help the digidestined." Wormmon said. "I doubt you want to be stuck here."
"If I do, I won't be doing it for anyone. Especially not my brother. However, I do have a score to settle with Vexilmon." The Kaiser said.
Sora felt the shield start to weaken, so she applied pressure to it and sure enough, her hand went through the invisible wall. The Kaiser did not smile or anything as she held out her hand to help him up. But as soon as he got to his feet, something happened.
"We need to have a plan. I-" the Kaiser stopped abruptly and started to cough. He put his hand to his throat and young Ken did the same thing.
"What's happening?" Joe asked with a sense of urgency. Instead of responding, the Kens started fading away. As the digidestined, they could actually see indents from what seemed like an invisible hand around the Ken's necks.
"I bet its Vexilmon. Geez, what is with that guy and choking people." TK said.
"We don't have any time for this. Ken, get us out of here NOW!" Kari said.
The Kens looked at each other as they gasped for air. They nodded in unison. The dimension started to crack like glass and the digidestined and their digimon felt a pulling sensation as their souls reconnected with their bodies. Now, the final battle shall begin.
A/N: I know, I know. That was a quick and sappy chapter, but I just had to do a chapter like this. Is that so wrong? Please review. Thanks
