"Doppelgangland"
5. 'So close, yet so far'
"They say that I must learn to kill
Before I can feel safe,
But I'd rather kill myself
Than turn into their slave."
~ 'In the Shadows' The Rasmus
Mike looked around at the group; "We should get some sleep. It's late."
Ken opened his mouth to argue but sighed and dropped his shoulders, "You're right." He glanced at his doppelganger for a second and made his way over to the small office type area of the warehouse and opened the cupboard again. He pulled out his sword and moved to an area just a few feet from the office. This area was clearly the workshop and Ken put down the long steel weapon on a desk and began putting on thick brown gloves.
"We should keep watch though, just encase he does something during the night." Mike added, indicating to Ken sitting on the crate like a statue.
"You read my mind, Mike." Ken stated and placed a welding mask on his head, "I don't intend on sleeping tonight so I'll keep an eye on him."
Yolei frowned at this for a moment before Mike went on, "Ken, don't do this to yourself. You're exhausted, you need some rest."
Ken looked up at the brunette with irritation on his face, "I'm fine." And without much more argument, he flipped the mask down to cover his face.
"Ken," Yamato sighed, but Kouen had appeared at his side, her long hair wet and curly. This time she wore a pair of baggy blue jeans and a baggy sweatshirt. She shook her head at Yamato and the blond looked down, "I wish he wouldn't torture himself like this."
"Me too. But it's in his nature. The most we can do now is just watch out for him. Maybe you could just keep watch tonight too, you know, incase he falls asleep?"
Yamato nodded and she turned, her face unreadable and made her way back to her room at the end of the warehouse.
Cody, Yolei and TK moved over to Yamato and, Cody, after hesitating, asked Yamato, "How long has Ken being like this?"
They turned to look at the teenager now busy fixing his sword with a blowtorch.
"For a long time. Ever since Osamu started taking over the worlds, he's just steadily gotten darker and anti-social. He's determined to stop his brother and save everyone. He feels like it's all his fault."
"But it's not!" Yolei protested.
"He doesn't see it that way. And neither does Osamu." Yamato sighed again and ran his hand through his hair.
"Kouen said she blamed herself for someone's death." TK said suddenly, "Who's?"
The tall blond looked down upon his brother's double sharply, then his features became softer, "Iori's."
"But it's not is it?"
Yamato shook his head, "Not technically, no, but try telling that to Ken or Kouen, they have always blamed themselves and they will always blame themselves."
"Why?" Cody asked with interest.
Yamato closed his eyes and shook his head, "I don't think we should discuss this tonight. It's late and you should get some sleep."
He indicated for Kari, Cody, Yolei, TK and Davis to follow him where he would show them where they were to sleep. He took them up some steel stairs onto the second level of the building and showed them another room off to the right. He opened the door and showed them the various mattresses and sleeping bags that they were to sleep on. "I'm sorry it's not more comfortable, but we don't have much else."
They shook the apology away and said thank you for the room. Yamato bowed to them and closed the door behind him, leaving them in semi-darkness, save for the single light bulb hanging from the ceiling.
~~~~****~~~~
Yolei sat up after what felt like hours of tossing and turning, fighting to get to sleep. Her mind was not in the least bit tired, though her body protested when she stood up. She stepped out of the sleeping bag she had tangled herself up in and silently opened the door of their room. She shut it quietly behind her once again and made her way down the steel steps. She looked around herself and noticed all the activity in the warehouse had ceased, everyone within the building was asleep. Due to not looking where she was going, she lost her footing on the last couple of steps and gasped when a pair of strong hands caught her upper arm. She looked up and drew in a sharp breath again at the two crystal blue eyes, practically glowing in the dark. She blushed deeply, "Thanks Ken."
He smirked, "Your welcome."
'Yolei run!' he thought desperately to himself.
'Don't try anything stupid Ototo-chan, or you know what will happen.' Osamu's voice rung in his ears.
Clearly, Yolei was under the impression that the indigo-haired teenager next to her was Ken from this world and because of the darkness of the building, she hadn't noticed his clothes. Her Ken had being wearing gray pants and a white shirt, while Ken from this world had been dressed in old jeans and a blue top.
The lavender haired teenager stepped down and moved closer to the window to look at the sky. She rubbed her arms nervously; "I can't see any stars. There were stars earlier when Ken and I fist came here, but now I can't see them. Is it 'cause of clouds or something? Or is it always this dark here?"
"You don't like the darkness?"
'Stop this!'
'Hush Ken, I'm trying to listen to what your girlfriend has to say.'
'If you know that I'm not your brother, why are you still doing this to me?'
'Insect, because by hurting you, I hurt my real brother and everyone around him. You see my bleeding heart brother carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, always has always will. Now on with the show.'
It happened in a second, much to Ken's protesting, his hand clamped over Yolei's mouth and his other hand pushed her to the floor.
'How does she taste Ken?' Osamu's sick voice filled Ken's head to the point where Ken felt himself become queasy.
'NO! Stop this!' he screamed at Osamu but the Kaiser did not listen to him.
Ken kneeled over Yolei, so he was sitting on her torso, holding her arms above her head, he bent down to savagely kiss her, muffling her screams. Being Yolei, and being the person she is, she brought her knee up sharply, letting it connect with his groin.
'AHHH!' he mentally yelled, 'Shit'.
'She has some fight in her, I like that.' Osamu laughed cruelly.
'She'll do it again if you don't take me off her.' Ken growled angrily.
'Do I sound like I care?'
Knowing full well the consequences of his actions, Ken threw himself off her, and received a sharp electric pulse through his entire body. The burning, stinging sensation carried through every fiber of his being causing him to physically scream out and convulse. When the fiery pain finally stopped, Ken lay motionless on the ground, gasping for air.
'Don't do that again!' Osamu yelled aggressively, causing the headache in Ken's head to increase three fold.
Osamu continued to send commands to the ring through his invisible keypad, a scowl etched onto his features.
Unwillingly, Ken stood up, to face Yolei who had wisely taken that free moment to distance herself from him. In a glint of light coming from the window, where the clouds had parted to let a beam of moonlight shine through, she caught sight of the ring. But before anything else could come to mind, someone shoved her out of Ken's path, and knocked him hard, over the head. The Indigo-haired boy fell limply to the ground, out cold. Her eyes fell upon his double, his haphazard hair falling around his face. Throwing the steel sword to the ground, he asked, "Are you alright?"
Yolei seethed, "You could have killed him!"
"He was going to rape you!" Ken yelled back, incredulously.
"Will he be alright?"
The troubled boy sighed, "I didn't cause any damage if that's what you mean, but if we don't get that ring off him, he won't be."
Yolei kneeled by her boyfriends' side, "How did he get out of the chair? TK tied those ropes so tight, not even a snake could have wriggled free."
Ken kneeled down next to her, a deep scowl on his face, "Look at his hands and wrists."
Yolei squinted through the darkness and when Ken produced a small pen torch from his pocket, she gasped when she saw rough, crimson grazes and gashes in her Ken's delicate, pale skin.
"Osamu must have forced him to escape the ropes. I'm just glad that those kinds of rings don't allow him to feel pain and remember all this." He muttered.
Yolei's brows knitted together, "But he does feel pain, at least I think he does. When I kicked him in the - well, the groin, he didn't even flinch, but then when he rolled off me, he started screaming in pain and shaking like he was having a fit. What was that all about?"
"I don't know." Ken looked up and only now realized how close he was to Yolei. She could have sworn he blushed as he pulled away and stood up. "We should tie him up again."
Yolei hesitated, then pressed on, "What happened to her?"
His head snapped up at Yolei as she asked the question. "I don't want to talk about it." He stated firmly.
"I'm sorry, I just thought it would help to talk-"
"Well it doesn't okay! So just drop it." He growled and went back to lifting the unconscious Ken and dumping him back into his chair.
Yolei moved over to the chair and helped him with the ropes. She tried to make eye contact with him, but he refused to meet her gaze. "What happened to him that he became what he is?"
This question was too much for him to ignore, "What do you mean?"
"Why is Osamu like he is?"
"It's a long story, and I don't-"
"Want to talk about it." Yolei growled, and then sighed, "He didn't want to talk about anything either." She said indicating to the limp form in the chair.
"What-?"
"About seven years ago, Ken was known as the Digimon Emperor back in our Digital world, and in our real world, he was know as the boy genius, Ken Ichijouji. Loved by everyone, girls, reporters, everyone. He was cruel and horrible as the Emperor, and when he ran away from home to be in the Digital World full time we knew we had to stop him. He put up Control Spires and Dark Rings. We eventually stopped him, with the help of Wormmon, who sacrificed his life for Ken. We found out that he was like he was because of his brother, Sam, who had died a few years earlier, when he was about nine. He put all his attention into his studies and wanted to become Sam for his parents. He was infected with this thing called a Dark Spore, which made him really smart and very athletic. It also fed off the darkness in his soul, making him the Emperor. When he realized that the Digital world was not a game like he thought, he felt really guilty for what he did and didn't want to be apart of our group. It took a while for us to accept him and we all became good friends. Even after all that, and when we started to date, it took a lot for him to really talk to me about his feelings. Still does. So what's Osamu's excuse for being the way he is?"
Ken nodded at her, "Your friends told me some of that story before we left your world." He sighed and tightened Ken's ropes. "Well, Osamu was the favorite, genius son. I was pretty much passed over all the time, but I made friends and did the best I could at school. Although I did get jealous of my brother at times, I tried not to let it get to me too much. Then one day, I was called as a Chosen Child. My brother was furious about it. He didn't think that I deserved it, but that it was a mistake and the Digivice was meant for him. We ended up in the Digital world together and we were both infected with the Dark Seeds.
"Mine didn't have too much affect on me, but Osamu became even smarter and even better at sports and well, everything he did. Eventually he couldn't take the pressure of my parents and reporters on him, including the pressure he put on himself. He took his copied Digivice and modified it before running away from the real world and becoming the Kaiser. He put up Dark Towers and Black rings everywhere. He became too strong for us to defeat alone, so we had no choice but to let him have the Digital world. But Kouen went to the Digital world and tried to make him see that what he was doing was wrong. He listened to her, he always did. He loves her you see. Anyway, he came back with her, but there was something different about both of them and their relationship was just never the same afterwards. Then a few months later they grew apart and Osamu began taking over the real world and went back to taking over the Digital world.
"He began capturing people, putting people in prison and making Black Rings for them. Creating an army of Snipers. He went crazy, the Seed completely took over his mind and when he locked our parents away as well as my friends, I knew I had to do something drastic. I had to put an end to it all. I had to put an end to him."
"You tried to kill him." Yolei breathed.
"You will pay for that dear brother!"
Yolei and Ken both spun their heads looking wide-eyed at the now awake figure in the chair. He was grinning sadistically, a crazed glint in his usually kind eyes.
"Why are you controlling him? I thought it was me you wanted to control and punish!" Ken yelled angrily.
The possessed looking Ken threw back his head in laughter, "I do! Don't you see I'm punishing you through him? The ring he is wearing, is a new kind. I control him, while he knows what is going on, but can't stop himself. This is your fault! Whatever he does against his will, is your fault!"
"You bastard!"
"Now now, Ototo-chan, language!"
"You're sick!" Yolei spat.
"Ah, Yolei, is it?" He turned his head to look at her, then back to Ken; "Your one is doing quite well as my whore-"
"YOU TAKE THAT BACK YOU SICK-"
"You know us too well. You are right; I would never touch something so unrefined and she would never let me touch her anyway, so I put her in a hole of a prison cell, where she is wasting away! You will never see her again!"
At this point rage blinded Ken and he lunged at the person in the chair, ready to attack him, but Yolei held him back, "NO! Don't hurt him!"
Throwing his head back to laugh again, "That's right Ken, you can't touch me for fear of hurting him! You failed at killing me, just like you fail at everything! If you want to stop all this, I suggest you sacrifice yourself to me."
~~~~****~~~~
"You can't be serious." Yolei sighed as she paced the office.
"I have no other choice." Ken sighed.
By this time everyone was awake and sitting in the office, with the exception of Shinsei. They had heard the noise and had come to investigate. Ken and Yolei had explained what had gone on and what Osamu had said.
"You're not actually seriously considering this are you Ken?" Daisuke asked, "You can't Ken!"
"What else am I supposed to do?" Ken growled.
Kouen got up silently and crossed the room to exit through the door. They watched her walk over to the workshop, pick up a hammer and move over to where Ken was sitting and he looked up at her with an odd expression. Without a word, she raised the hammer up over his head and before they could react to what she was doing, she had brought it down hard on the back of his neck. All of them ran out to stare in shock at Ken and then slowly to Kouen. In a fraction of a second, the ring shattered and disappeared. Ken slumped forwards off the chair and the group ran to his aid.
Kouen walked up to Ken who was standing in the door way and handed him the hammer, "We get some rest, in the morning we think of a plan and then maybe this nightmare will be over. That's what you're supposed to do." Without waiting for a reply she turned on her heel and walked back to her room.
~~~~****~~~~
Osamu ripped the visor off his head and threw it across the room. "How are they managing to break those rings so easily?" he roared. He fell back into his throne and sighed, "Kouen." He rubbed his eyes and muttered to himself, "I must get her back. She knows too much and I need her."
"Master?" one of the Snipers, asked timidly, "Is there something wrong?"
Osamu glared at the Sniper, "Get out." He hissed.
"Sir, what about Kouen, should we-?"
"I SAID GET OUT!" he lashed his whip at the Sniper as he retreated from the room. Breathing hard, the Kaiser leaned his head back and mumbled, "This is far from over. In fact, this is just the beginning."
----~~~~----
Nic: Okay, so it's a short chapter. But I had to leave it there otherwise it would be too long and really, re-writing this chapter was one of the hardest ones.
Ken: But now you are free to write freely.
Nic: Indeed!
Osamu: Which means more work for us.
Kouen: Yup, only, she has everything planned already.
Wormmon: How come this chapter was so hard?
Nic: Because I had to remember everything I have said and haven't said yet. So there was a lot of going back and reading other chapters.
Kaiser: You have a lot of things to answer.
Nic: I know, I can't wait!
Nic: (Updated AN). Thanks for the reviews everyone, I'm glad you like what's going on. And I also hope you are all reading Akino Ame's 'With Broken Wings' 'cause it's brilliant!