"Doppelgangland"
8. 'Facing the demons'
"Don't stay,
Forget our memories,
Forget our possibilities,
What you're changing me into
(Just give me myself back) and
Don't stay.
Forget our memories,
Forget our possibilities
Take all your faithlessness with you
(Just give me myself back) and
Don't stay.
I don't need you anymore
I don't want to be ignored
I don't need one more day
Of you wasting me away
With no apologies."
~ 'Don't stay' Linkin Park
Ken and Cody stared up in shock at the frightful creature. Though, she was only two heads taller than they were, she seemed to tower over them.
"What is she?" Cody choked.
"I'm not sure," Ken admitted, "but I think she's a Digimon."
Cody glanced around himself; "Do we fight her?"
"I don't even know if we can." Ken looked at the Black Ring on her wrist. It was blinking with red lights on ancient symbols. Ken recognized them but did not share this with Cody.
Cody noticed what Ken was staring at and nodded, "We have to destroy the ring! But how?"
Ken held Cody back as he made to run forward to the kitchen to find a weapon of some sort, "No Cody. I don't think destroying the ring is a good plan."
Cody looked skeptically at Ken. Cody was taller now but he was still shorter than Ken, who was the tallest of the group. Even though he needed to look up to Ken to face him, it did not waver his courage. "It's the only plan we have Ken." He said narrowing his eyes.
Ken sighed and looked back at the powerful digimon, "Okay. But how?"
"I don't know-"
Cody broke off when Kouen leapt forward and spread her wings. It seemed she wanted to fly off the balcony by the lounge.
"WAIT!" Ken yelled to her, and she turned her head to look down at him.
"Kouen, wait!" he breathed, not knowing what to say next.
"You are not my mission human." Her echoing voice surrounded the room; "I do not have time for games."
"We don't want to play." Ken rambled and spotted one of Kouen's Sais lying on the floor. She must have dropped it when she changed. He inched towards it; "we just want to help you."
Huffing Kouen turned her head and made to take off again, when Cody noticed what Ken was up to and this time yelled, "Don't!"
"Enough!" she bellowed, "Do not make me kill you."
As she turned her head again, Ken grabbed the Sai and dived forward, jamming the sharp point of the weapon into the ring. A bright explosion destroyed the ring, sending shards flying in every direction. They opened their eyes and did not find Kouen back in her human form, but an even worse sight. Her eyes were now a dim red/brown, no longer under the control of the ring, and she was thrashing about more violently. She spun around looking confused and Ken and Cody had to dive to the floor to avoid being hit with her wings.
She opened her mouth only to let out that horrible screech again.
Ken looked up at her and muttered to Cody, "I told you we shouldn't have destroyed the ring."
"Why is she acting like that?" Cody gasped.
"The ring was controlling her evolution, now she doesn't know how to control it. She's like a wild animal. We have to get her to devolve somehow."
"If you haven't noticed Ken," Cody glanced around him self; "We don't have any digimon with us."
"That's probably a good thing. It would make things worse I think." Ken chanced getting up and searching the room trying to find something to fight her with. He spotted the small bottle on the floor and frowned.
He made to pick it up but felt the strong and surprisingly hot wings hit him with extraordinary strength. He hit the wall and slumped to the carpeted floor. Then Cody and Ken watched as she took flight on the balcony and flew off into the sky.
"NO!" Cody yelled, "What do we do?"
Ken got to his feet, picked up the bottle and ran for the door, "We follow her!"
They ran down the stairs, knowing that the elevator would take too long and hopped into the van. "Where are the keys?" Ken mumbled desperately, "Damn it! They're upstairs in the apartment."
Cody glanced up at the window of the apartment, "Should I run up and-?"
"No, it'll take too long." Ken's head was already under the steering wheel, yanking at the wires. He sparked the two live ends and the car roared to life.
"Where did you learn to do that?" Cody inquired eyeing Ken suspiciously.
"In science class." He glanced at Cody with a wry grin, "I went to a gifted school remember."
Cody chuckled and shook his head. Looking out the windscreen again he spotted Kouen's birdlike form high above them. "It looks like she's heading to the base!"
Ken made a hard left at the nearest stop street and almost ran another car off the road. He barreled down another street and stopped at a set of robots. He looked up out his window and asked Cody, "I've lost her, do you see her?"
Cody pulled his head back inside the car frowning, "Yeah, she's on the roof of the hospital over there. Why do you think she's stopped?"
The light turned green and Ken sped off in that direction, "I don't know, but I'm glad she did."
"Don't be. She's taken flight again. Still heading to the base. Wait!"
"What?" Ken asked sharply.
"She's slowing down again and flying lower. But she looks like she's trying to fight something."
Ken lowered his head to look up out the windscreen and noticed that Kouen was doing a kind of dance in air. Then she clutched her head, arched her back and screamed again before plummeting to the asphalt below.
"Oh my God!" Cody's eyes went wide and Ken zoomed forward to the spot where she would land. With a sickening crash, the roof of the van dented in the middle and the back windows in the door shattered. Ken and Cody glanced at each other before getting out and daring to look at the body on the roof of the van. Kouen lay there still in her digimon form, seemingly unharmed save for the fact that she was unconscious. To their surprise she sat up abruptly and jumped to her feet, turning to face them. They instinctively stepped back and she collapsed again.
They watched as her large wings retracted into her back, her clothes morphed to the ones she wore earlier and the feathers disappeared. She also shrank slightly in size. Ken walked carefully over to her still form and scooped her up in his arms. He carefully lay her down in the back of the van and drove off again to the warehouse.
When they finally arrived, Kouen was starting to rouse. Ken and Cody helped her out the van and draped her arms over their shoulders while they went up in the elevator. "What happened?" she asked shakily.
"You don't remember?" Ken asked incredulously.
Her eyes dropped to the ground, "I turned into it didn't I?"
"If you're talking about that digimon, then yes." Ken sat her down on one of the crates.
She rubbed her head and then looked up sharply, "The serum! I didn't get the serum!"
"Is this what you're looking for?" Ken asked, pulling out the bottle with the purple liquid in it.
She grabbed it out his hand and jumped to her feet, "Yes!" without another word she ran to Ken's room, where everyone was standing around him. They looked at her and moved out her way when she came close to Ken's bed. She kneeled beside him and felt his forehead; "He's burning up." She turned to Hikari, "Could you bring me a syringe from the first-aid kit?"
The brunette nodded and ran out the room.
"What's wrong with him?" Yolei asked, worry evident in her voice.
"He's been poisoned." Kouen said quietly and checked Ken's wounds.
"Poisoned?" Daisuke gasped, "Kouen? What-?"
Hikari ran in and handed Kouen the syringe, "No time Daisuke, I'll explain later." She held the bottle of serum upside down at eye-level and pushed the needle of the syringe in to the lid. She filled the hollow tube and pulled the needle out. She flicked the syringe to get any air out and squirted it once to check the needle was free of any blockage. Then she pushed the needle into Ken's arm and sent the serum into his blood stream.
She sighed and pulled out the needle, throwing it in a dustbin under Ken's bed. "All we can do now is wait."
She stood up and turned to the group.
"Kouen," Yamato said, looking at the bottle of purple serum in her hand, "is that what I think it is?"
She nodded.
"Osamu wasn't going to do to Ken what he did to you was he?" Daisuke questioned, stunned.
She shook her head; "I don't think so. I think he was just trying to make Ken suffer. He knows what that serum does to a person. I guess Osamu didn't think I still had some of the serum he gave me to stop the fevers."
She turned and walked out the room and made her way, wearily to her own room. There she lay down on her bed and closed her eyes but opened them again when she felt the presence of someone standing next to her bed.
Ken had closed the door behind him and was looking at her concerned. "He did that to you didn't he?"
She sat up and nodded.
"When?" Ken asked feeling sickened.
She took a deep breath. "About four years ago. When he was the Kaiser in the Digital world."
"What exactly did he do to you? I mean, how could he turn you into a-a…?"
"A digimon? I don't even know if that's what you could call me. I'm not human anymore but I'm not completely a digimon either. I don't know what I am. But it started when he started doing experiments with digimon and forced Ryo to tell him everything about his travels to other dimensions. He told Osamu about a digital world where Chosen Children become digimon by using Human and Beast Spirits. I'm not sure exactly but I think Osamu went searching through a different digital world and found a temple of ancient spirit digimon. He took the most powerful one and most appropriate one and put it in his D-3. Then he prepared me for the fusion by injecting a red serum into me. Don't ask me what it did, I don't know and then somehow, he fused the spirit with me. The serum made me sick, sick with fevers so Osamu made me something that would sooth and stop the fevers all together.
"But the fevers weren't the only thing. I didn't know how to control the digimon spirit within me. I nearly went crazy. And when I say crazy, I mean locked-up-in-a-paddle-cell-crazy. There were voices inside my head all the time, so loud sometimes that I literally could not hear myself think. I would burst into the digimon form at spontaneous times and would have no memory of what I had done. I don't have my mind when I go into that transformation you see. I don't have any control and the only time I had an inch of control was when Osamu had a Black Ring on me, but even then it was hardly anything. Finally I managed to pinpoint what brought on the evolutions."
"What was it?"
"The evolution of any other digimon." She sighed, "Everything is an opponent to the Phoenix Spirit. She will fight anything."
"And Osamu did this to hurt you?" Ken asked darkly.
"No, he did it because he loved me. Or so he claimed, but I don't think he ever thought that I would become so powerful and so out of control. But he figured out a way to keep me in check and then he made me evolve and fight all of the Chosen Children's digimon. When they were beaten I took them to Osamu to be enslaved." She lowered her eyes.
Ken suddenly looked up, "Oh my God!"
"What?"
"You're Osamu's experiment!"
She frowned deeply at him, "Yes, I-"
"No, you don't understand, when I was the Emperor, I made a digimon called Chimeramon. But he was too powerful for me to control. Did Osamu make a digimon?"
"Well, if you count me, yes."
"It's all happening. It's slightly different, but it's happening."
"Ken, you're not making sense."
He got up quickly, "I have to talk to the others, come with me."
She nodded and followed him to the table where everyone was sitting. He sat down and asked for everyone's attention. When he was sure he had it, he went on to tell them everything Kouen had told him. As well as the fact that the Base was exactly the same as how he had built his Base.
"So what's your point Ken?" Davis asked.
"My point is, it's all happening in some way, but where are Daemon or Arukenimon?" Ken looked meaningfully at their faces. "Surely he would want to take the Spore by now?"
"Maybe he doesn't exist in this world." Cody shrugged.
"Ken," Kouen said quietly, "I appreciate you worrying about this, but right now we have one problem to deal with, so lets just focus on that."
Ken took a deep breath and nodded.
"Right, I should get training with you two." Kouen stated, standing up and looking at Ken and Cody.
Ken shook his head; "I have something I need to do first. I'll train with you later."
Kouen frowned slightly but shrugged, "Okay Ken." She looked to Cody; "You ready?"
He nodded and followed her to the dojo.
Once inside, she closed the door and handed Cody a Kendo stick. After a few rounds of fighting with the sticks, they bowed and removed their helmets, panting.
"Who taught you?" Cody asked.
Kouen put the sticks away, "My father. He taught me all I know, that is before he died."
"I'm sorry." Cody bowed his head in understanding, "How did he pass away?"
"Cancer." She sighed, "Not exactly how he would have wanted it, but I guess he still fought all he could." She smiled softly at him and handed him a sword. "You're an excellent Kendo fighter. He was too you know."
Cody's brow furrowed, "How did he die?"
"Iori died like a hero. Just like his father. He died saving someone else's life."
Cody smiled despite himself then looked down at the sword; "I've never used one of these before."
"I know, that's why I'm going to teach you. Then we'll do some hand to hand combat."
He nodded and they bowed before taking a fighting stance.
~~~~****~~~~
Ken sat in the office, the door closed and the blinds shut. He had a large piece of paper in front of him and a pencil in his hand. He stared at the sheet of paper and then closed his eyes, thinking hard. Snapping them open again, he bent over the page and traced a long line on the page, then a second line running parallel to it. He looked down at his map of the Base so far and nodded, as if satisfied with it. He put that page on the floor after marking it 'Level one' and began to trace a map on the fresh piece of paper. This one he titled, 'Level two'.
He felt himself begin to shake with concentration and fear. He realized that the more he forced himself to remember the Base and everything in it, the easier it became to see it vividly in his minds' eye. He could almost see himself dressed in his Emperor uniform, marching down the long passage to his control room, his whip in his hand and Wormmon at his heels. He shook his head and began to draw the map again, trying to force down the sick feeling in his stomach.
He hadn't even heard the door open when his double walked in; he was too busy concentrating on his designs of the Base. When Ken cleared his throat, he looked up from his work.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, putting the pencil in his mouth to erase a mistake he had made.
Ken looked down at the paper and frowned, "Okay. I've been better. What are you doing?"
Ken removed the pencil from his mouth and began re-tracing the line on the map. "I'm drawing a map of the Base."
He narrowed his eyes and took a seat opposite Ken. "How do you know what it looks like?"
"I built it once." He said plainly without taking his eyes off the map.
"When you were the Kaiser?"
Ken nodded, "Digimon Emperor. Who told you?"
"Your friends. It came up. Look, how do you know that Osamu built it the same way you did?"
"Kouen took me there to find out when we rescued you. It's exactly the same." Still, Ken did not lift his eyes off the page. He seemed absorbed in the project and almost obsessed.
"I thought you didn't have any memory of being the Kai-I mean Emperor?" Ken cocked his head to the side, watching his double.
Abruptly, Ken stopped drawing and was still for a beat before slowly looking up into his doppelganger's eyes. "I didn't used to remember. For years things were blurred and there were gaps in my memory. But lately I've started to remember." He indicated to the map, "This helps too. Forcing myself to remember, it helps."
"Why though, why would you want to remember all the horrible things you did? Davis said that you hated yourself for doing those-"
"I do alright? There's not a day that goes by that I don't regret or hate myself for doing those things, but if I can help in someway here, then I'll do it. And the only way I know how to help is like this. There was a reason for me becoming the Emperor, and I finally know what it was now. It was to help you take down the Kaiser here." Ken's eyes softened a little and dropped back down to the map where he began drawing the map again.
Nodding, Ken stood up and left the room, turning to watch him for a moment again, before closing the door.
He felt a rush of gratitude toward his double, knowing what the cost of his help must be doing to him. But something deep down worried him. He noticed a small glint of something in Ken's eyes when he first looked up from the map. It reminded him of Osamu when he had been studying and Ken had interrupted him. It unnerved him to a great level but he closed the door shrugging it off. He knew Ken knew what he was doing and trusted him. He just hopped that Ken could trust himself enough not to go too far into his memories and not come out of it unaffected.
----~~~~----
Nic: Right, done.
Ken: I don't know if I trust you so much anymore.
Kaiser: He remembers now? And he's using his evil powers for good? No!
Nic: Oh, calm down, I never said that did I, but I implied it. And so what, I'm all about 'There's a reason for everything.' So if you don't like it, bite me.
Osamu: Don't tempt him.
Wormmon: Kouen's a Digimon?
Nic: In a way, yes. That will be cleared up some more over the chapters.
Nic: (Updated AN). Well, not much to add; only I forgot to add that I own Shinsei too. And please guys, when you review, let me know about my writing, the story, if things confuse you. What you think of the characters and so on. Thanks.