A/N= ::bows:: I'm sorry for the *terrible* delay of this one chapter! *bowsbows* I hope that you all that have been waiting for this will find it worth the wait. If you've time to drop me a review, I'd love to hear what you think ^_^
Disclaimers = Digimon's themes, characters and locations belong to Toei and all the rightful owners. Tenshi, and all the characters mentioned in this fic that never appeared in the TV show, are mine. =)
Rating = PG-13
Warnings = Shounei-ai. Kensuke, Daiken and Kaisersuke.
Shattered mirror Part 07- In a Cage of Remorse and Peace of MindThe Kaiser groaned and shook his head, and in his darkened corner his digimon fought the urge to sigh in relief. The young tyrant had been staring at nothing for far more time than the digimon liked, and even now moving seemed difficult for the boy, if not painful. Trailing his nails down the carpet with a screeching noise, the Kaiser balled his fists and rose on his knees, eyes shut and breathing difficult.
The room was flooded with unreal silence, and the low, blackish mist that had been the Kaiser's medium to reach and shatter Daisuke's soul was now streaming over the floor, wavering gently as if moving over unseen currents. While gushing around silently the mist seemed to shift in colour repeatedly, black actually fading to grey and violet in some points.
Eyes widening briefly before narrowing in dark satisfaction, the Kaiser stared down at his hands and then raised his head, tilting it to one side, then the other, fidgeting slightly all the time. His eyes contracted, squirming and widening imperceptibly in a quick succession, as he turned around his head, trembling as if his neck was paralysed. Licking his lips the Kaiser let out the first, small, chocked laugh. A sound that lasted for only the briefest of moments, but that was long enough to echo in the room.
Throwing his head back the Kaiser finally surrendered to the cruel laughter burning in his throat, his whole body shaking. The reason of his contentment was easy to guess, but not less troubling for it: trying to find any lingering sense of good feelings inside Daisuke's heart, the Kaiser had found none. The boy was –virtually- gone. His old self didn't reside in his body anymore, and where his heart once dwelled there was just a bottomless hollow now, filled with the darkest shadows the Kaiser could hope to find.
Shadows that would feed him, nurse him, shelter him, till the end of time.
Leaping to is feet in one quick, yet fluid motion, the Kaiser found himself breathing hard –the afford of breaking Daisuke had drained him more than he thought- and bent forward, arms frozen at his sides. For a small eternity nothing moved, and the air filled with the jagged breaths of the evil tyrant. Finally, the digimon stepped forward, cloaked in worry.
"Kaiser…" Hearing the sound, the boy whipped around, even before effectively understanding he'd been called. "Are you…"
"Fine." The Kaiser hissed, a ghostly grin drawing his lips back.
The digimon swallowed, and dug one of his toes on the ground, refusing to look away.
"Daisuke… is Daisuke…" The digimon bit his bottom lip, nodding slowly toward the spot where the digidestined of Courage and Friendship had collapsed, and then to the Kaiser. Slowly, the Kaiser turned around, his eyes coming to a rest on the same spot the digimon had stared at, a dim glow from the window lightening that part of the room to misty shadows.
"Mine." He hissed, drawing in a sounding mouthful of air. "All mine. Forever. Always. No more Ken, now. No more digidestined. Just me. Me. Me…"
As his exhaustion-induced trembles quieted down, the Kaiser finally forced himself to relax, as much as he ever did, feeling his head pound, adding to the other aches rampaging through his body, and walked over the window. He took a quick look around, and enjoyed seeing the area clear, even though normally he'd be irate at the lack of sentinels.
"The digidestined?" The digimon squirmed, but bowed his head, reporting the situation carefully. He had both dreaded and expected such a question, and had made sure to be able to answer it accurately.
"Both the old and the new team went through the digi-port and gathered in the sector 213-B. All their digimon are with them as well, and all but one are in their rookie form." The Kaiser nodded pensively.
"They're not giving Daisuke up, I take?"
Reluctantly, the digimon shook his head, exhaling soundly.
"You didn't really expect them to, right?"
"Oh, no…" the Kaiser grinned, his eyes flickering to the digimon. "This is just perfect. I promised Daisuke I would spare his friends if they consented to let me keep him. I suppose my beloved told them." A nod. "Good. Then, since they broke the rules of my game, I must and will punish them." With a swirl of his cape the Kaiser began pacing toward the door, his digimon following faithfully.
It was time for the last act of his little game.
The Kaiser's true power's apparition and the digidestined's final defeat.
* * * * *
Miyako watched helplessly as Ken fell deeper and deeper into a pit of sorrowful desperation. He was shaking, and tears streamed down his face in shining rivulets. Breathing was difficult for him, and Miyako wasn't sure it was only a consequences of the incontrollable tears. The way he was clutching his chest was suspicious, and the child of Love and Sincerity couldn't prevent from worrying about Ken's health.
The reality was –surprisingly- a mix of the two options. Ken's breathing had become unsteady because of the tears, yes, but it was just as true that the ache in his chest had caused it. It wasn't, however, a medical problem what plagued Ken.
From the few words she'd grasped in his stream of endless sobs she'd understood that –somehow- Ken and Daisuke's digital partnership had been deleted, worse yet, shattered carelessly, and that was affecting Ken's heart, body and soul in the most horrible of ways.
Daisuke's heart had been ripped away from Ken's.
Miyako didn't like the sound of that. Oh, no. Not at all. Yet, she couldn't stop the small voice whispering in the back of her head that now that Ken and Daisuke's souls weren't linked anymore, maybe Daisuke could be hers. Miyako frowned at herself as the thought crossed her mind, surprised that she would actually rejoice in her friends' pain. Yet she knew better than be surprised.
As the keeper of Love she knew how such an unpredictable and strong feeling as love worked, and she knew very well the effects it could have on people. Unsurprisingly, Miyako herself wasn't immune to the streams of confusing and battling emotions being in love brings up to people's mind.
In the midst of his desperation, with dry sobs making him shiver helplessly, the child of Kindness had fallen on his knees, his arms wrapped around his upper body as a some sort of shield. His hands attempted to wipe away the tears that streamed down, but instead curled around his own arms with such force to make his knuckles turn white.
Nibbling her bottom lip rather hard Miyako glanced at the other chosen, all of whom were now gathered around the two of them. They all looked back at her, each well-known face filled with concern, as her wide eyes seemed to ask, "What do we do now?" And it wasn't long before she vocalized the question.
Hikari was the first to move. She kneeled in front of Ken, gently pushing Miyako out of the way. For once Miyako didn't question her friend, and moved over enough for Hikari to reach the sobbing boy – yet remaining largely within touching distance.
"Ken…" She whispered gently, placing a comfortable hand on his shoulder.
Ken couldn't help it. He flinched. There was only one person he had ever let touch him that casually since the Kaiser accident, and it surely wasn't Kari. No matter how deep her eyes were, or what that with the sunlight dancing behind her they'd taken a dark brown hue. They just *weren't* those deep, molten brown eyes he loved and trusted so much.
Hikari saw Ken flinch away, but didn't remove her hand. On the contrary, she tightened her grip.
"Ken." She said again, softly, yet with authority. The boy swallowed, and raised his eyes to hers, still shaking slightly. Pleased to have his attention, Kari smiled, yet her hold tightened even more. Her eyes lowered, and her usually open face contorted in a serious frown. "Tell me what happened to Daisuke."
At Hikari's words Miyako winced slightly. She supposed that had been a bit too blunt, and she surely had hoped the child of Light would handle the situation with more tact. However, Ken seemed at ease with this new, somewhat dominant side of the brunette digidestined. All the security Ken lacked in that moment seemed to have gathered inside Hikari, and the girl's behaviour was infusing it back into Ken.
"Hikari…" Ken whispered, little gasps choking his voice. "His heart… Daisuke's heart… has been divided from my own…" All the digidestined let out strangled gasps, but Hikari just closed her eyes, head hung down. When she reopened her eyes, those cherry lakes of benevolence, it was to look at Ken with surprising, *cold* apathy. Hikari, for once, was refusing to spread her light on a needing friend.
"Ken." She said flatly. "You and I knew *that* would happen. We knew that all too well." Ken shook his head stubbornly, watching Hikari with as much coldness as he was being stared with. Yet, his voice sounded strangely pleadingly.
"No…"
Suddenly angry, Hikari straightened up a bit and glared down at the distraught
boy without mercy, her knuckles turning white around Ken's shoulder.
"Ken, there's no need to lie to ourselves! We knew from the start Daisuke would have gone with the Kaiser!" Ken looked down, unwilling to meet Hikari's eyes, but she kept murmuring fiercely. "Didn't we? Stop hiding Ken! No matter *why* he did it, Daisuke followed the Kaiser. And we *knew* he would. He's just like that. He did that to save us, to save himself. That felt like the best solution to him, and he's not one to ignore what his heart tells him."
Ken closed his eyes just when his trembles had reached their zenith and when Miyako was about to leap forward and break the two chosen apart. Two huge tears overflowed his closed eyes and trailed down his cheeks, going to meet a beautiful death on the incandescent desert sand.
"I know." Ken stated simply, and Hikari's whole attitude changed at those words. Her features lightened up in a smile, her whole body unwind, and she sat down on her heels, loosening the grip she had on Ken's shoulders. Ken looked up at her then, and there was a question in her eyes – her beautiful deep and caring eyes. A question Ken knew he had to answer.
"It's just…" the boy shook his head, lowering it to the ground, and forced himself to relax – Hikari was right, after all. "I didn't want Daisuke to go. I… I didn't expect all *this* to happen. It… it hurts. It hurts just too much…" Ken gripped his shirt over his heart, grimacing in pain. Hikari smiled gently, and her hand moved up and down Ken's arm in a comforting fashion.
"Ken… I know. I know how much pain you must be in. I don't know how devastated I would be if someone was to divide me from Miyako--" unnoticed, the Child of Love and Sincerity let out a small gasp, looking at her long-time friend with wide hazel eyes. Did Hikari actually mean that, she wondered. "—but it's not the shattering of Daisuke and your bond that's troubling you, right Ken?" There was such certainty in her words. A subtle stream of knowingness. Something that shimmered quietly underneath and was waiting for Ken to pick it up.
Which he did.
"N—no?" He asked, more than state, and Hikari nodded almost imperceptibly. "N-no. No." Ken admitted quietly as he lowered his head, not wanting to meet Hikari's eyes during this confession. In front of him the child of Light nodded slightly, saying with a smile Ken couldn't see that she understood. Slowly Ken smoothed his hair back from his face, and rubbed his arms savagely.
Ken knew what Hikari wanted. She wanted him to talk, to open up. And at some degree, didn't Ken want the same? Only… he wasn't sure what Hikari wanted him to say, or what she knew he had inside to tell. Ken himself didn't know what it was that he needed to say; that he needed to ear in his own, low voice. So, taking a deep breath and rubbing his arms slower, Ken ordered his mouth to open and say whatever he'd bottled inside without knowing.
"I… wanted Daisuke to stay with me." He murmured quietly, pale cheekbones colouring with the admission. "I didn't want him to go to the Kaiser! Never!" His voice was lowered in reluctance with his first admission, but it raised to a high note on the last few words. Hikari raised and eyebrow and narrowed her eyes, but didn't drop her hand.
"I know Ken."
"No… no, no! You don't! It's not—I don't…" He screamed, the shaking in his arms increasing. Miyako blinked, taken aback, and shot a doubtful glance at Hikari. What was she up to, Miyako wondered. Why assaulting Ken with words, when he needed reassurance more than anything?
Miyako herself was torn between curling in a ball and launch herself in a desperate, bare-hand attack to the Kaiser's base, wherever it was. The idea, the mere *concept* of Daisuke being in danger tore her heart apart like nothing else, and here she was, watching her best-friend lecturing mercilessly her former-crush and rival in love, and feeling pity dwell in her heart for the latter.
Ken was distraught; it seemed like the very foundation of his life had crumbled, and he was wondering, blindly, in a maze of glass where countless hauntingly reflection of his face tormented him. Where the only Light he had to find his way was adding torture to torture.
Clenching her fists Miyako frowned. In that moment Hikari was dark – as dark as nothing she'd ever seen. Her innate light seemed dimmed – worst yet, seemed to be trapped in a shell of darkness. The angel of Light had disappeared, Hikari had too, and all that remained was a cold tormentor.
A growl scratched its way out of Miyako's throat and the girl took a step forward, gentle features settled in a cold frown.
"Hikari…" she began, slowly, but just then Hikari whipped around, and when crimson eyes wedged in her own, Miyako felt whatever resolve she had gathered, shatter. No, that wasn't Hikari, nor the creature of Light that resided in her and so often took control of her action. This was a girl in pain, terrified by the loss of a friend, saddened by it, but determined to cease all the pain she could sense.
Her own, Miyako's, Ken's, Daisuke's--- The Kaiser's even.
Taken aback, Miyako blinked, and retreated of a step. Just then, a soft whisper escaped Ken, and whatever spell Hikari's eyes were casting on her was broken, for the girl ha dipped her head to look at the boy she held.
"I… rejected the Kaiser because… of Dai…" Ken sniffled, and her arm curled protectively around his shoulders. Her arm touched his own as she tipped her head to touch his, letting all her warmth leave her enter and him. "I was so scared, so scared… Even thought you'd defeated him, he was still inside me, he was still me… and whispered to me darkly, telling me how much he loathed you all…"
"I hadn't the force to battle him, but… but then Daisuke came… and… and he smiled at me… at Ken, not at the Kaiser… God, when he smiles at me it's like sun rises and… and… Daisuke didn't like him, and I wanted Daisuke to like me, so… so I sent the Kaiser away." Ken's voice was feeble, soft, and he sounded like a child who'd just lost the greatest treasure he had, and was confessing to his mom that yes, he hurt, but that he feared it was his fault if his canary left its cage and flied away from him; that he felt guilty, and scared of being responsible all the same.
The girl drew her fingers through his hair, whispering comfortingly as his eyes stared blankly at the blurred shapes that where his hands, now mere inches from his face – hands that were waiting for an order to cup around his face and hide it from the worlds, so that he would be free to weep, or to fall in the resulting darkness.
"But Daisuke choose him over me… he still doesn't like me… and I… I…"
"I'm sorry. I wish I could have helped you." She breathed gently.
Ken turned his head to look at her - her sincere eyes, so similar to Daisuke's... A gentle, tender smile curved up Hikari's lips, and the child of Light seemed to transform in a creature of pure light herself. Light that spilled from her like drops of gold. Light that would heal Ken.
And Ken couldn't find it within himself to lie to her.
He sniffled, tear shimmering in his eyes, and murmured, "Would Daisuke like me if I became the Kaiser once again? Would he chose me over him this time?" Hikari smiled, making soothing sounds as she rubbed her friend's back, and shook her head.
"No, Ken… whatever it is that made Daisuke follow the Kaiser is not half as strong as what binds you two together. Daisuke doesn't want to stay with the Kaiser, but he has to. He wants to stay with you, but he can't. Not right now. And…" Hikari rose to her feet, and offered Ken a hand.
After some moments of hesitation in which Ken had time to rediscover how his heart sounded now that it beat alone, the child of Kindness took the offered hand, marvelling at the force such pale and slender digits gripped his own with.
"And…" she continued, "Whatever feeling you've for Daisuke, tell him. It doesn't matter how, when, or with which words… but he has to know." Ken was about to lower his eyes, but Hikari's cherry orbs caught them, trapping him. "He *needs* to know Ken. Don't be scared. Daisuke cares for you, even if in which degree is past me. Daisuke loves you Ken, never forget it. You, not the Kaiser. And… he needs to hear he's loved back." Hikari let out a soft chuckle, tipping her head to one side. "Even thought this love you share is different from what you've ever experienced before."
Ken let got of Hikari's hand, but it wasn't a gesture of denial, or the beginning of a retreat. It was his way to show her he was strong enough to stay on his feet without help, now.
"Daisuke… is my friend." Ken admitted. "My best friend."
"And so much more." Hikari added. "Your partner, the other half of your soul."
"…and so much more even." Ken agreed with a smile, sniffling one last time to ease his erratic breathing. Hikari grinned, hands on her hips.
"And never fear what will come out of this feeling, Ichijouji Ken. Whatever it will be, it will be good."
Ken ventured a chuckle, and was glad to hear Hikary's cheery lips echo it. Miyako soon joined them, her stress melting in an wild giggle. Other voices echoed them, laughter, groans, puffs and snorts melting in one silvery symphony. Ken felt incredibly, undoubtedly lighter.
So… Daisuke was important to him. The final admission had been endured. Without Daisuke Ken's world crumbled, but why that was, he still wasn't sure. Throughout the past years Daisuke had stuck beside him through thick and thin, renewing and strengthening their bond, always there for Ken, fighting life, death, destiny and whatever else may had come to endanger his Ken, just to be with him.
Their loyalty to each other was unquestionable, their friendship unshakeable, and their bond ran deeper than any friendship, any brotherhood, any love-story. Love… Ken had always felt that falling in love was something far in the distance, that would occur to him way after his present had become past. But now, the simple word filled his mind.
Was that the answer?
Daisuke was the most important thing in the world for him. Daisuke was the only person who could bring a smile to Ken's face that was not fake. Why it was Ken simply didn't know, but it was nearly impossible for him to smile and mean it without having Daisuke near. He had been the one to ease Ken's mind when he was still battling against the dark whispers' of his Kaiser's persona. Daisuke had only had to smile with a touch of his unmatchable charm and Ken's heart had stopped bleeding, despite everything.
Daisuke had never let Ken down, and Ken would do anything for him.
The purple haired, shy keeper of the crest of Kindness couldn't bear to think of life without his Daisuke.
Did *that* count as love?
Incredibly enough, it was Ken's voice but not quite that answered him. And it didn't came from inside, but from somewhere outside in the desert. A voice growled, almost drunken with anger, a harsh dissent, and when Ken looked up, on top of the highest bund of sand, cloaked in sunlight and caressed by dancing and swirling sand, a shadow loomed into view.
As the figure approached, new details were bathed in light and revealed to their eyes. A flicker of purple behind the approaching shape, a blur of silver at his wrists and ankles, a glint of gold on his face, wild thorns of violet on his head.
The Kaiser was like a work of art; his sensual hips and his trim limbs outlined in a caress of purple. The wild little spike that grazed his right eyebrow. The slightly darker one that kissed the curve of his ear. The crease between his eyebrows that filled with shadows as he tilted his head. The tantalizing merest hint of a smirk that lingered on his mouth as he looked up from under his lashes to his uninvited guests.
"Welcome in my garden, digidestined." He said in a silken, sultry murmur, and Ken gasped, rapt despite himself. The Kaiser's voice wasn't as appealing as the rest of his body. It was, indeed, capturing, for with his huskiness quality and deepness seemed to wrap around whoever was there to listen and melt them. Miyako didn't like his voice though, and sent Ken a glance that conveyed as much, but she could have been non-existent to him as he stared straight at who once was himself.
That was the first time he saw his counter part in plain daylight and so up-close, and the experience was head-spinning. His voice, his body, his every movement was like a drug for Ken, and the boy found himself retreating.
Something about the Kaiser's countenance caught his attention though, and forced him to a breathless halt.
Blinking, Ken shook his head as if to free it from the strangeness of what was ahead of him, but when he focused bad on the leering Kaiser, nothing had changed. A distinct, almost palpable, veil of darkness seemed to enclose the digital tyrant. If something of his appearance had changed since he was inside Ken, it was his… colour.
The few patches of his skin visible on his face and neck wasn't alabaster, but slightly darker, tanned, as if it'd been infused with darkness. His hair too, wasn't purple like Ken, or shaded with Osamu-violet like in the days when Ken and the Kaiser were one. It was a darker shade of purple; blue covered with a layer of plum. Reddish and amethyst all the same. And the strange mix succeeded in transforming the midnight blue Kaiser Ken had been, the creature of the night, in a hellish demon that walked in a darkened bloom of flames.
Ken bit his bottom lip in worry. Darkness dwelled so deep and strong inside the Kaiser now to be evident on the outside, too? The keeper of kindness found himself wondering what had been of the sweet child that clutched his dragon-friend to his chest, and how could them beat him now that he seemed to have completed a transformation of sort.
Had the shattering of Daisuke and his bond had something to do with this change, with this amount of power galloping rampant inside the Kaiser's veins and fluttering around him in waves, Ken wondered.
"It's highly unkind of you to barge into my gardens with weapons drawn." He continued, arching a perfect eyebrow. "Is this mere loutishness, which I could correct easily with some gratuitous pain, or it's a work of foolishness?" Each and every face in front of him darkened, and the Kaiser chuckled, delighted in the reactions he was eliciting.
"This is my home, dear fools, and I don't have mercy of unwanted guests. Leave now." The Kaiser smiled subtly, waving a gloved hand with gracious nonchalance. "My beloved still cares of you, in some way, and we don't wish to upset my consort on the day of my final victory, now do we?"
A low, ricocheting chuckling escaped him, and Ken clenched his jaw to tame his rising anger.
"And we don't have mercy of people that kidnaps our friends." The chuckle renewed, dark but disturbingly amused, and Ken's teeth clashed with a screeching noise. "Where's Daisuke?"
* * * * *
Wherever he was, the boy stirred. He felt warm, no hot, as blazing air and icy fog swirled around him in the most incredible of contrasts. He felt idle; his own body felt far, and it was like only his mind existed anymore even though trapped in a blurring fog. He was actually surprised he could feel the soft caress of the liquid darkness and hot air against his skin.
* * * * *
The chuckle met and abrupt stop, and the Kaiser's smirk turned sweeter, sugary almost. Even though he still wore his visor, even an untrained eye could imagine what kind of mocking expression those shades hid, and for Ken –who had seen that face reflected at him in a mirror for more than he cared to remember- was not only easy, but unnerving.
"Oh, you came to claim him as yours now?" a sigh followed, chorusing a small shrug. "Too bad Ichijouji, you missed your chance already. Give up, will you?"
Ken took a step forward, features twisted with anger.
"I'm claiming no one." He stated, and behind him Hikari frowned. "Daisuke is *not* an object. I'm here to save him and… tell him how much he means to me. I'm here to bring him back where he belongs – by my side." A sharp intake of a breath could be heard form the general direction of behind Ken, but the purple haired boy did his best not to turn. Was that Hikari cheering, or rather Miyako getting worried? Ken wasn't sure he was ready to know yet.
"Confident, aren't we?" the Kaiser sneered, his head snapping to a side as a signal for Imperialmon to stroll up to him, looming into view from behind the sandy hill. "Let's not waste this precious time together by speaking then. You dare disrupting my game. I fear I've to punish you, now."
Taichi exploded in a throaty laugh at that, fists pressed on his sides.
"Punish?"
He spat out when the Kaiser turned to regard him coldly, an eyebrow cocked up.
Aware of all the eyes were now him Taichi swallowed hard, plastering his best
try at a coy grin on his face. "Give Dai back to us, little punk, or you'll
deal with the consequences."
"Intimidating." The Kaiser said blandly, his face detached of any expression.
Despite himself, Taichi shivered… and it wasn't completely out of rage.
Feigning
a boldness that he didn't feel deep inside, the former leader of the
digidestined raised his chin and snarled darkly, his eyes running up and down
the Kaiser's body with calculated scorn.
"You and your digimon are no match for us, kid." The Kaiser regarded him
scornfully and Taichi wasn't sure he was glad to have summoned an emotion on
that marble face.
"Watch
who you're calling kid, human." Then a smirk blossomed on the Kaiser's
lips, and everything afterwards went downhill. "I alone am older… and more
dangerous… than all of you together." This said, the low mist that lapped
–unnoticed- at the Kaiser's feet began boiling, and rose like a wall of
flames, screeching and crying as if a living creature.
Eyes wide, Taichi slumped backwards, a tremble coursing down his back.
"And some of your friends seem inclined to agree." Frowning, Taichi turned, more of a natural reflex than of a pondered action. His eyes quickly scanned the plain fields, searching the faces of his friends for any sign of weakness, or fear.
Determination was what he found; determination and courage; friendship. Strangely enough that traits of the lost digidestined were the one that shone clearly over them all. Taichi smirked, unbelievably proud, reassured, watching all the familiar faces break into similar –albeit less confidant- smiles. But when he aligned his eyes to his left, his eyes narrowed. Yamato stood, few inches from him, and the mere sight of the blonde's present look was enough to make Taichi's certainty crumble as a castle of sand.
Yamato's eyes were wide, incredibly dull, and a thin layer of sweat made his skin, now ashen, glisten in the sunlight. Tiny trembles racked him, and his mouth moved soundlessly in a wave of mixed fear and surprise. Taichi's features settled in a frown without his consent. Never – ever in his life had he seen Yamato Ishida so affected by something.
The Yamato Ishida he knew, the Yamato Ishida he'd fought side by side for years, did *not* tremble. Never. The idea that the mere sight of the Kaiser was enough to reduce the blonde keeper of Friendship to a shacking shadow of himself was… disturbing, to put it lightly. Immensely alarming maybe came a little closer.
"Yamato…?" Taichi tried, but the only answer he got was silence. Then, "What did you do to him?" he hollered to a still unfazed Kaiser.
The younger boy cocked his head to one side and smiled with nauseating sugariness -making Taichi's stomach churn in disgust- before diverging his attention to Yamato, the mist around him reacting to his feelings and growing darker, higher, denser.
"Long time no see, Yamato." The Kaiser grinned, and then bowed his head to other two digidestined that had made their way up to the blonde. "Sora, Jyou. Glad to see you two again, my dear friends."
Sora pressed her hand to her mouth, eyes widening as she searched for comfort into Yamato's closeness. Jyou too stepped closer to his blonde companion, swallowing soundly but looking, in the complex, way calmer than the other two. It was easy to tell, thought, that the blue-nette was straining to keep himself under control. Some kind of quiet dread seemed to radiate from him.
Sora was horrified, but Yamato's reaction was worst than hers. If distress had ever personified, it was inside Yamato now. On his part Jyou tried his best to be as stable and controlled as possible, but his control seemed to be deteriorating quickly.
"The… dark mist." Yamato chocked out a last, drained. Sora gripped her hands together, clenching them again and again until her fingers were sore from the effort. And Jyou's cold behaviour trembled as he clutched Yamato's shoulder, searching comfort rather than offering it. "It's… it was… him, but—how… how?!"
Pleased, Kaiser began laughing, and not only Yamato, but the whole Digiworld, trembled in horror.
"It can't hurt us any further." Jyou reminded through clenched teeth, tightening and loosening his grip on Yamato's shoulder rhythmically.
Taichi let out a sharp breath and turned from the Kaiser to stride toward his three companions, his eyes purposely searching Yamato's. There was something in those azure depths that spoke clearly of inner terror and Taichi felt like it was his duty to banish such a dark emotion.
"Everything alright?" Sora looked up sharply, biting her bottom lip worriedly.
"Taichi…" she croaked out huskily, but no words followed for a long time.
"Tell them." The Kaiser challenged with a shrug. After casting the purple haired boy a quick glance Sora turned back to Taichi, Jyou and Yamato following her lead and gazing at their former leader unseeingly. The keeper of Love squeezed her hands together and cleared her throat. Her voice was still feeble, though, when she attempted to speak again.
"Something… happened to us during our quest against the Dark Masters," she began carefully, her voice cracking. "And… we never told you about it." The brown haired boy smiled at the three of them, trying to pass them as much confidence and thrust as he could, but, for reasons unknown to him, none smiles back. Joyu and Yamato diverged their focus at the ground, evading the brunette's gaze with a seemingly calculated carefulness, while Sora released her breath in a soft sigh.
Closing confused eyes against the sight, Taichi a deep breath in, relishing in the air, warm and humid, but far from being unpleasant. Every now and then, in the following pause his thoughts would wander to the silent forms in front of him, but he did his best to hide his rising concern. When he opened his eyes again, it was upon hearing Sora's voice deforming the silence.
"I… think it's time for you to know."
"A sort of… mist dwells in the depths of Digiworld and it captured us all once." Jyou took on, eyes dancing frantically from the Kaiser to the digidestined few steps in front of him. "The same Dark mist the Kaiser commands now." Massaging the bridge of his nose Jyou made his best to avoid the shocked looks send his way, and exhaled slowly. "When it gets you, this mist takes control of you mind, and then of your body, whispering dark nonsense to you until you believe them to be you only reality. You're slowly dragged into a nightmare, and the worst thing is that you're not… willing to break free.
"You… weaken, and lose the capacity to… think clearly. And the mist… gathers energy from--"
"Fuck it, Jyou, tell them the truth!" Yamato roared in disgust, fists clenching at his sides. His eyes burned Taichi when he whipped around, his voice sounding like clap of thunders. "You're reduce to a puppet, nothing but a fucking doll! And you end up feeding the mist with the sorrow it causes you! You become its fucking nourishment, until you're spent!" His voice cracked and he rubbed his face harshly, a frustrated gesture. Pain. The mere memory of that experience was painful. Hot and searing, forcing unwelcome tears to his eyes. "It took me, not them. It gnawed at my mind for weeks, until it paralysed me. It's thanks to Gabumon if I'm free, now. Sora was in its claws only for few hours, and Jyou feel into it only to save us."
"It still fed off of me, though." The blue-nette muttered lowly, attempting a small smile during the following silence.
"I know Jyou, sorry." Taichi shook his head, confused, and the dishevelling chuckle escaped the Kaiser.
"What a fool, you still don't get it?" the Kaiser shook his head in mocking sympathy, and around him the wall of fog built higher, stretching toward the sky like skeletal fingers. "If my power is so big… so unmatchable… it's because I fed off your friends' hearts, digidestined of Courage." A chorus of gasp rose, and again the Kaiser sneered, a mad smirk blossoming on his face in dark contrast with his immobile stance.
"Then Ken came, the ideal prey, and I began drinking in his never-ending sorrow, for no matter how much I took from him, that amazing toy that was the Dark Seed tore at his mind relentlessly, bringing back awful pain for him, and incredible energy for me."
* * * * *
Running his tongue experimentally over his lips, he gasped, revelling the feeling his senses were sending to his brain. And the breathing in itself made him ravenous for more sensations. Buzzing noises brushed past his ears. Now he could ear too. Could he see, he wondered. Slowly, he cracked one eye open.
Maybe he could, but…
He closed his eyes again. What was the point of looking when the only thing you can see is nothing? What's the good to be capable to see when there's nothing in your mind you regard as worth to be seen. Yet…
**Ken.** A voice in the back of his mind whispered, and suddenly stray rays of light exploded behind his closed eyelids.
…Ken…?
* * * * *
His smirk faltering for the quickest of moments, the Kaiser looked down at Ken with a loathing grimace painted over his face, and seemed to be content just studying Ken's facial expression. Deep down, where he rarely let his mind travel nowadays, Ken could still feel the stings of pain as he let his memories drift to when he had no free control over his actions and emotions. The days before the fall of the Kaiser. The days before who he was had been put into discussion.
* * * * *
He opened his eyes again, to find himself still flying (Floating? Drifting?) through the darkness. How long had it been since he had closed his eyes (drift asleep?)? Hours? Days? Months? Years? Ages? The time the Universe takes to be born and die, to be reborn again? It was difficult to say, since nothing had changed.
Closing his eyes again, he opened his mouth, allowing air (Water? Liquid darkness?) in. But it held no taste. Creasing his lips in a little frown, he inhaled deeply the darkness (Air? Water?) But it held no smell. His frown deepened, and he drew back his lips in a gesture he couldn't quite understand.
* * * * *
"And then…" the Kaiser began again, slowly, he too caught in his memories. "Daisuke came, with darkness to match my own, beautifully sorrowful and hurting, and whatever lingering emotion for him you left inside me grew, until I saw I needed to make him mine."
"Daisuke's not a toy!" Ken hollered, crashing back to terra firma. "None of us is!" the Kaiser's eyes lowered into tiny slits, and he growled, irritated beyond words.
"Of course he's not. He's human. He's important! He's your friend and you all care for him! Indeed! That's why no one ever cares to spend time with him, or to ask him what troubled him so much to make him slit his wrists." Ken froze, one of his hands reaching out, meeting only air. Incredibly enough, the Kaiser backed away, an irate gesture, as scalding liquid built up behind his eyelids.
"Daisuke--- did Daisuke…?"
"You did this to him!" He hissed. "You claim that you care for him, while your actions lead him to the arms of death!"
"We… didn't… wouldn't…" Hikari shook her head, aghast, and the Kaiser hissed curtly.
"He won't know any other pain while being with me! He'll be mine for all eternity, and I'll keep him in a glided cage in which he won't feel anything anymore."
"That's not even living!" Miyako protested, but the Kaiser wouldn't hear them, or look at them, as he whipped around, eyes shut tightly against his boiling anger.
"Go away, now that you still can." He spat out, the sound sliding through the barrier of his clenched teeth.
"Not without Daisuke!"
"Daisuke's mine now!" The Kaiser hollered back at Ken, irritated, but his anger was simply a mask for his true feelings of sorrow. Why had Daisuke had to suffer that much…? but if he hadn't… the Kaiser wouldn't have him now… but he didn't want Daisuke to hurt anymore…
*Please, he's been hurt enough already… why does he still have to hurt? Onegai… onegai…*
Daisuke loved the digidestined, but the Kaiser had to punish them. They would hurt Daisuke… but lose them would hurt him as well… the Kaiser loved him, loved him just so much… and he was in pain… Daisuke was still in pain. Despite everything, still in pain…
"His heart is not yours anymore! You can't feel it beat with yours, isn't that enough of a proof to make you renounce? He won't come back to you! He can't! For he's mine, and mine only, till the end of time! Step back, human child, and let us be!"
"His heart… may be… divided from my own now, but…" Ken shook his head, lowering ever-lovely eyes to the sand. "…my heart will always be… with him." He swallowed hard, ashamed at his confession.
* * * * *
Allowing his lids to flutter up, he found that something had changed. The blurred colours that had taken the place of the darkness he dwelled in had shaped themselves into solid forms, faces, bodies. And the boy was amazed to feel a sparkle of recognition stir inside him as he surveyed each face.
"They're hurting…"
There was a strong, courageous young lad in the middle of his field of vision. Tall, tanned, the aura of a leader pulsing around him. Next to him, a girl with kind eyes and pretty features steadied a boy with hair of gold and one with marine hair. All the three of them radiated warmth, a degree of quite strength that seemed to flow of them and into him.
"I hurt them…"
In the near distance, another boy, slightly shorter, scanned his surroundings with keen eyes, clutching close to his chest some kind of processor. At his side, young, but with no trace of childlikeness, another boy stood, rising proudly against the brilliance spilling from the desert sky.
"…how…?"
And at last, there was a handsome child of the sun; the sweetest maiden and the prettiest angel of heaven. They stood, unshaken, around…
"Ken…" that one he knew. That one he cared for. That one…
He smiled, warmth suffusing through his body, and closed his eyes, peacefully, his head lolling to one side. "…love…"
* * * * *
Ken's eyes grew wide. Whispered words seeped into his ears; his name being called in the distance made him raise his head, hesitantly. At the same time the Kaiser whipped around, eyes equally wide behind his purple shades, and his and Ken's eyes met, connected by an invisible force, stronger than words could explain. Ken's knees weakened, his mouth suddenly becoming dry. The purple haired digidestined murmured something unintelligible into the nothingness, and the Kaiser sucked in a ragged breath, incredulous.
There was something wavering in the air that resounded into Ken's ears like a heartbeat… like an echo to his own heart's rhythm.
Thump-thump.
Thump-thump.
Thump-thump.
//Daisuke…?//
Thump-thump.
…Ken…
Thump-thump.
//Daisuke!//
Thump-thump.
…Ken.
=========================================
To be continued in part 08: The Beginning and The End
A/N = I hope you enjoyed it, it has been pretty exhausting to write. =) I hope that you're not disappointed this is not the last chapter, as I said inside chapter 06, too.
Daisuke = Well, I dunno. This was rather plot-less. I mean, I would have preferred to see how things ended up instead than… err… what happened in here, again?
Miyako = *starry eyed* The force of your love for Ken is freeing you from the Kaiser's grasp and you're managing to re-forge your shattered bond!! *fan-girl squeak*
Ken = *sweatdrops* I thought you liked Dai, Miya… you're not supposed to go all giddy over the power of his love for me… ^^;;
Miyako = *still in the fan-girl mode* But this is so romantic… *sighs*
Daisuke = Excuse me? I thought it was the force of *our* love, Ken. *stomps foot on the floor*
Ken = Well… yeah… I mean… maybe… I'm not sure yet… I mean… we don't… you… and I… err…
Miyako = Don't worry Dai-babe! *glomps Daisuke* If Ken rejects you, there's me to comfort you! ^^V
*stunned silence*
*a cough comes from outside, and it sounds pretty much like the Kaiser's voice*
*the silence stretches on*
Nemesi = Uhm… okay… err… it's review time? =) *hopeful*