"Doppelgangland"

10. 'Save me from the dark'

"If I could change I would Take back all the pain I would

Retrace every wrong move that I made I would

If I could.

Stand up and take the blame I would

If I could take all the shame to the grave I would."

~ 'Easier to run' Linkin Park

Ken lifted his head only a little, and looked up at Kouen with his dark blue eyes. His body ached and burned with fatigue. His head pulsed with the pain of his wounds and fever but he pushed it deep down into his body so that he could barely feel anything anymore. Kouen was right. He needed to focus. He needed to let go. He had to stop holding back, this was no game. This was a matter of life and death. He moved into a fighting stance and waited for her assault.

She flew at him, her Sais were inches from his face, but in a swift movement, his sword was blocking his face and not allowing the sharp weapons to touch is face. However, because he was so focused on blocking her weapons, he forgot to block her moves. He landed flat on his back after flying backward by the force of her foot in his gut. She didn't give him a moment to recover so he flipped himself back onto his feet and swung his sword at her midriff. She jumped back and instantly roundhouse kicked him in the face. He stumbled and recovered, but she was right there in his face again. Her movements were fluid and it seemed that with every action that was made, her body made a reaction. It was as if she was taking his energy, his motions and using them to throw back at him.

In a moment of hesitation, she flicked her Sais around the blade of his sword and flung it from his hands. Reeling from this, he back-flipped away from her, towards the sword, but she had already anticipated this and when he reached for his weapon, she was already there standing with it in her hand and holding it at his throat. "You loose Ken."

Without warning he jumped back from the sword and dropped down for a sweeping kick. His leg connected with Kouen's ankles and the force caused her to loose her balance and land on her back. She dropped the sword and her Sais but was on her feet again in seconds. Ken came at her with his fists, but she blocked and repelled all his blows. Finally he found an opening in her defense. When she brought her arm forward to punch his face, he grabbed her wrist, pulled her forward on her own momentum, twisted her around, while tangling his arm around hers and using his fist to punch her in the face. She staggered, but he brought her elbow down into her gut, where she doubled up and he dropped her. She fell to her knees and gasped for breath, while he picked up his sword and held the tip pointing at her heart.

She looked up at him, finally having caught her breath and nodded, "You figured out what I was doing. Using your own energy against you. Well done. The Kaiser will not understand it until it is too late."

He nodded and bowed and held out his hand to her. When she stood up, however she swayed violently on the spot and the world around her became hazy.

"Kouen?" Ken asked worriedly.

"I-I'm fine Ken, just a little worn out from the fight." She took a few steps forward and collapsed in a heap on the floor.

Ken ran forward and examined her, "Kouen?" he felt her pulse, it was there and not weak and when he looked at her face again, she was stirring.

"Did I faint?" she asked groggily.

He nodded, "Are you okay?"

"I think so."

He picked her up in his arms and carried her out the room.

He walked past the large group of people dancing in the middle of the warehouse and headed straight for Kouen's room.

Hikari and Yamato noticed this and ran towards Kouen's room. Yamato rushed in as Ken was setting Kouen down on her bed.

"What's wrong?" he asked concerned.

"I just had a dizzy spell Yamato." Kouen answered irritably, "I'm probably just worn out from the evolution."

"Do you need some of the serum?" Ken asked.

She shook her head, "No, I think I'll be fine with some rest." She lay down and turned to the wall. She found it very easy to fall asleep, even with the noise outside.

The small group of people left her alone and closed the door quietly behind them.

Yolei, Kari and the rest of the Digidestined as well as Ken all grouped around Yamato and Hikari. Ken had marched off towards the dojo again.

"We saw Ken carrying her to her room. Is she all right?" Cody inquired.

Yamato nodded, "She'll be fine. She's just exhausted from her evolution today."

They rejoined the party and danced for hours. Ken noticed Hikari standing by one of the memorials and decided to join her. As he approached, he saw she was looking at a picture of her brother. She turned to him with a brave smile.

"He's not…?"

"No, he's just a slave for the Kaiser."

Ken hung his head, "I'm sorry."

An awkward silence fell between them and Ken suddenly asked, "Where do you get the money to run this place?"

"We get it from Kouen." She stated. When she saw the puzzled look upon Ken's face she added, "Her parents got divorced when Kouen was just a little girl and she lived with her father because her mother didn't really want any responsibilities anymore. I think that was the reason for the divorce. Anyway, after Kouen's father died, her mother sent her money to look after herself until Kouen had a job and could afford to take care of her self. You see her mom married this really rich guy and so whatever amount Kouen asks for, her mom sends her, no questions asked." Hikari dropped her voice; "Personally I think her mom feels guilty about leaving Kouen; that's why she pays for anything Kouen wants."

"Hmm, well, that is handy to have in a situation like this."

Hikari nodded her head and looked around, "Looks like the party is dying down now. I think I'm going to get to bed."

"Who's going to clean this up?" Ken asked with a slight laugh.

She grinned, "Oh, the crowd does. It's the deal we made. We set it up, they clean it up."

Ken nodded with a smile and watched her go to her room.

~~~~****~~~~

The next morning Ken awoke to Kouen whispering in his ear. He slowly opened his eyes to look into her large green ones and frowned, "What's wrong?"

"I thought we should sneak out to the Digital world now, while everyone is still sleeping." She whispered.

Ken tossed back his covers and pulled on his pair of jeans and a shirt and followed her out the room. He ran his hand through his hair in an attempt to tidy it.

"Why do you want to go to the Digital world now?" he asked her when they were in the office.

"I don't want the others there. I think it would be far more risky if we went in a pack and if they knew we were going, just the two of us, they would insist they come. You know your way around the Base and I can serve as protection, and test out this ring you gave me." She held up her wrist to show him the Silver Ring.

He eyed her for a moment and shrugged, "Okay. Lets go."

By using Ken's D-3, they entered the portal through the computer and landed in the Sever Dessert. Kouen wore her white Vietnamese dress and she noticed that Ken was wearing a gray uniform, even though he was seventeen.

Ken looked down at himself and muttered, "Some things never change."

"The clothes come from a wish right?" Kouen asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Ken told me that all their clothes changed to what they wanted. It's a subconscious thing."

Ken nodded, "Yeah." He looked closely at her face, "What is it?"

"I was wondering if you would be able to make yourself look like the Kaiser. It would be a lot easier to get around in that Base." She added quickly when Ken's face went pale.

Ken noticed that his mouth had dropped open so he slowly shut it. He stared at her, "I don't know if I could even if I wanted to."

"Couldn't' you just try?" she pleaded.

He sighed and closed his eyes. He squeezed them tight and focused on his Emperor garb. When he thought he was too exhausted to think on it anymore, he opened his eyes and looked down at himself. He was dressed in the blue and white jump suit.

"You did it, only the Kaiser's outfit is black where yours is blue."

He nodded and focused on this for a minute and opened his eyes to see he looked just like the Kaiser. He shuddered involuntarily.

"Thank you for doing this." She said quietly, "I know it must be hard for you."

He nodded and they entered the Base without anyone giving them a second glance. All the slaved digimon went about what they were doing and some bowed down at Ken's feet. A sickening feeling of nostalgia threatened to take over Ken and make him tell those Digimon to stop bowing, but he fought the urge.

They walked to the monitor room and Kouen stopped outside, to keep guard.

He passed the throne and moved forward to the invisible keypad. Kouen looked in at him and had a mixture of awe and bewilderment on her face.

He began typing in commands to bring up files and he put in a disk to download all the files. When that was done, he pulled out the disk and put it in his pocket.

He was about to begin setting up a worm virus when he noticed an e-mail in the Kaiser's inbox. He clicked on it and backed up slightly, his eyes wide with shock.

"Dear Osamu,

The pressures of life are getting to you; you feel you cannot cope. No one understands you and you feel you need to get away from your family. There is another world you can go to. All you have to do is use your brother's Digivice. Copy it, and you will be able to escape."

Ken shook his head and closed the e-mail. He began setting up the virus and shut down the monitor.

He walked passed Kouen as he exited the room and down the corridor, "There's one more thing we need to do." His tone was cold and void of emotion.

"Are you okay Ken?" she asked.

"I'm fine."

After a few moments of silence between them, while they walked down to the core of the Base, Kouen finally decided to ask, "What are we doing?"

"I'm going to try and shut down the power to this Base." He stated bluntly.

"Oh."

Again they walked in silence but froze when three digimon slaves came walking around the corner. All of them were Gotsumon and when they laid eyes on Ken they dropped to their feet and began to bow to him, praising him, "Oh master, we did not know you were going to come back so soon."

Ken grimaced down at them and felt his insides churn. "Get up." He said quietly.

They looked up, "Master?"

"I said get up off the floor. Go back to your business." Kouen noticed his tone was cold and somewhat cruel.

He began walking again when the digimon nodded and ran off in the opposite direction. Kouen watched him for a moment and then caught up.

"You sounded just like him." Her tone was distant and slightly afraid.

He didn't look at her, "I know. I was him remember." His eyes dropped to the cold gray floor, "Do you have any idea how dirty I feel right now? In these clothes? In this Base?" he shook his head, "Lets just get this over with as quickly as possible."

She nodded and said with a guilty tone, "I'm sorry Ken, for making you do this."

He shrugged, "I volunteered remember?"

When they entered the room, Ken marched forward and caught a glance at him self in the reflective tube. His stomach lurched and he felt his hands curl into fists. 'I'm not you anymore.' He thought angrily to himself.

He bent down to look at the pipes and jumped backwards when a large pool of black and purple opened up in front of him. To his horror, Daemon emerged from the portal and looked down on him with his glowing eyes.

"Osamu Ichijouji." He rasped.

"Daemon." Ken hissed.

"You know who I am?" Daemon sounded taken aback.

"Ken," Kouen interrupted, "Who is that?"

"That's Daemon, a Dark Lord Digimon who's bent of getting his claws on the Dark Spore." Ken chewed out, while still facing Daemon. "I knew you would make your appearance sooner or later."

"How do you know what I'm after?" he asked dangerously.

"I'm not Osamu, I'm Ken Ichijouji and-"

"The Kaisers' brother?"

"No, I'm a different Ken. From a different dimension."

"But I can sense the Dark Seed in you, how is this possible?" He growled and before Kouen could step back and prepare her self, Daemon made a swipe at Ken, knocking him hard into the wall of the Base and increasing in size.

Ken slumped to the floor and tried to find his focus. He looked up at Daemon with blurred vision.

"No matter, I'll just take your Dark Seed!" The dark lord digimon loomed over Ken but before he could touch Ken, a whirlwind of flames hit Daemon and he staggered backward. 

Ken looked up and blinked a couple of times to clear his vision. He saw a figure flying by Daemon's face and saw that it was Kouen in her Digimon form. She was taller and those fiery golden wings were allowing her to fly away form Daemon's claws.

Ken's stomach sank; she would be killed. Not even Imperialdramon was strong enough to take down Daemon.  However to his surprise, her barrels of flame seemed to be hurting Daemon. His mouth fell open as he watched her attack him.

She was incredibly fast and he could not get a single attack on her, however he seemed to be slowly destroying the Base.

"Kouen!" Ken yelled, "Take the fight outside!"

She glanced down and nodded to show she had heard him and with a violent attack of flames, sent Daemon hurtling through the Base wall and into the sand of the Sever Desert, where he shrank back to his original size.

Ken ran out through the hole in the wall and saw to his horror; Daemon was now faster and able to hurt Kouen in this size.

"Flame Inferno!"

Ken cringed as Kouen hit the sand and was burned by the attack, but when it died away he saw she was back on her feet, though looked slightly drained.

"It's time to even this out a bit." She growled and yelled, "Hououmon digivolve evolved to…Hushicyoumon!"

For a moment she glowed white and when she was visible again, she was taller, her hair was down to her knees in a long red braid, phoenix feathers still resting over her hair. Her wings were now gone and in their place, wings were attached all along her arms. A gold body suit covered her torso, while bronze coloured boots went up to her thighs with little feathered wings at the heels like the wings on her arms. Silver gauntlets were on both hands and a gold helmet in the shape of a Phoenix's beak sat upon her head coming down over her forehead and casting her eyes in shadow.

She giggled and looked down at Ken, "I always wanted to say that."

----~~~~----

Nic: I think that's where I'm going to end this chapter.

Ken: She can go up levels now?

Kaiser: Apparently.

Nic: Well, I thought so, since she can control her evolutions now. But this is the only level she can go up to. Also, I know what you readers are thinking, that it should be a slide evolution, but she doesn't know that because she has only been around the normal digimon of season 2 which don't slide evolve. Don't worry, it will be sorted out in the sequel. She doesn't know about human and beast spirits yet.

Wormmon: I don't think having Ken dressed, as the Kaiser is such a good idea.

Osamu: Why not?

Wormmon: It might make him crazy with guilt over what he did.

Ken: Hmm, Nic, is that what you are planning?

Nic: Why are you asking me this, you know I won't tell you. Besides, there are other issues you should be worried about, like Daemon for one!

Kaiser: Oh, yeah, right.

Nic: *Rolls her eyes* Oy vey!

Kouen: Wait, did she say sequel?

Ken: Yes, she's been thinking about it for ages, where have you been?

Kouen: Hmm, I don't know.

Nic: (Updated AN). Okay, it is so hot here that I can't think straight or move and I'm melting!

Ken: Yet you insist on proofreading this chapter and uploading it.

Nic: Yes, I promised I would get a chapter out every Sunday. Speaking of which, I won't be here next weekend so I'll only get the next chapter out on Monday night, sorry. Things are coming to an end sadly but don't worry, I am working on the sequel and those of you who read 'Weight of the worlds' you'll be happy to know that the sequel to that is almost finished. Now, I've been trying to upload this chapter for a long time now, but each time it messes up the page and every thing italics is not in italics and the format is wrong…grr, if it happens again, I'm leaving it like that, sorry guys, but I'm too hot to mess around with this today.

Anyway, till next time, read and review!