"Doppelgangland"

11. 'The enigma'

"Here I go again with the pain I feel

Is it real or in my mind?

I find myself in places with names but not faces

My memory erases at speeds

Hundred degrees, my soul bleeds

Devil must have planted the seed.

Now it feels like my back's against the wall,

I'm taking the fall,

Whenever I call, no body's responding at all.

But I don't know who I can trust,

They're screaming my name,

I need somebody to help me out of the flame."

~ 'Paper Cut' Linkin Park (Reanimation)

Ken looked up at Hushicyoumon with shock and awe. He watched as she approached Daemon and a flash of a memory overwhelmed him. He remembered how even their digimon at their strongest were no match for Daemon. Surely Kouen would be killed if she tried to take the Dark Lord Digimon by her self! He came out of his revere and yelled to Hushicyoumon, "He's too strong for you!"

To his amazement though, every blow to him, every attack got through and caused damage and Ken felt his anxiety ebb away for a moment. It wasn't until Daemon yelled "Flame Inferno!" that his stomach clenched up again. But Hushicyoumon absorbed the flame attack and threw it back at him in ten fold. "Phoenix Inferno!" Daemon flew backward and landed hard on the sand.

"Ken!" she yelled suddenly and he looked up into the sky to see her hovering above Daemon. "What should I do with him?"

"What do you mean?" he yelled back.

"I could destroy him, but he would just be reconfigured and we would have to start this all over again, so what else can we do with him?"

Ken's throat seemed to close up with the thought of their other choice. He would have to open a portal to the Dark Ocean, but he didn't know if he had the strength for that again. It was bad enough wearing the clothes of the Emperor and walking through the Base and living those memories again, now he had to tap into that power to open the portal again? He took a deep breath and yelled to Hushicyoumon, "There is one way of getting rid of him."

She flew down and landed in front of him, "What is it?"

"I can open a portal to the Dark Ocean and trap him in there."

"Are you sure?" she looked closely at him and saw the apprehension in his eyes.

He nodded, "I just hope it works. The last time I opened a portal, it was in an area that already had a weak spot in the barriers dividing the worlds." Ken took a step back and pulled his D-3 from his pocket. He held it up at eye-level and took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and willed a portal to be opened to the Dark Ocean. As he held onto the thought, beads of sweat ran down his temples and his eyes squeezed tighter and tighter. He knew why it wasn't working; he was holding himself back. He tried to think back to what Davis and the others had said to him when he did this the first time. He could hear Davis' voice ring in his ears, "You're not that person anymore!" and suddenly the penny dropped.

"No," Ken thought, "I'm really not. These clothes mean nothing, those memories are just that, memories, I am the only one who can turn me back into the Emperor and I will never do that."

With a sharp intake of breath, he opened his eyes and a bright pink light shot out of his D-3 into the sky, where it tore and revealed the gray world of the Dark Ocean. As Ken willed it to, the rip got bigger and bigger.

He turned his head to Hushicyoumon, "Do it now!"

She nodded once and with a final attack of flames, sent the weak form of Daemon into the dark world. Ken let go of his concentration and the rip closed, as if it had never been there.

Hushicyoumon devolved and looked at Ken with awe. "That was amazing-!" She frowned when she noticed he was staring at her in a look of disbelief. "What?"

"Daemon is a Dark Lord Digimon, one of the most, no, possibly the most powerful digimon in the world. When we came up against him, our three most powerful digimon couldn't even scratch him but you bring him down in one blow?"

She blushed, "It's not like I destroyed him."

"No, but you could have if you wanted to. Did you know how powerful you are?"

"Not until now."

"No wonder Osamu wanted to control you. With you on our side, we can win this war in a matter of hours." Ken turned towards the Base with the intentions of going back inside.

"I won't use this power to hurt him." She stated.

He turned back and paused, "Why not?"

"Because I love him! I could never hurt Osamu!"

"He is not Osamu! He is not the man you fell in love with, Kouen!" Ken yelled at her. She flinched at this, as it was something she was not expecting to see on him. He usually seemed so calm and collected; it was almost frightening to see him yell. He stepped forward.

"He is a monster now and the part of him that is Osamu has been swallowed up!" He took another step closer. "Ask me how I know this, Kouen. Go on, ask me. I know you have been dying to ask me ever since you found out I used to be the Digimon Emperor. ASK ME!"

Holding back tears she choked, "How do you know?"

"Because I've been there. It's more than having a dark side; it's like been possessed by your dark side. Deep down, I knew the Digital world wasn't a game, that it was wrong to do the things I did but the more I did it anyway, the more that little part of me disappeared. Everyday the darkness devoured me until there was almost nothing left and there was no control and I felt like I was losing everything, even my sanity. I knew I was getting lost in something that wasn't quite me but I couldn't stop it, or didn't want to. Then I was freed from it and completely confused and lost and wanted nothing more than to die. Osamu has gone much further than I ever did, whatever part of him is left, probably doesn't want to be saved. I know that at first I wished I had died, rather than lived. Sometimes, you have to be cruel to be kind, Kouen. Death should be a release, not a punishment."

"You really wanted to die?" she asked breathlessly.

"At first, yes. Then I realized that I had friends who would help me, but it's still there and it will always be there. Memories like that don't go away too quickly." He turned around again and headed to the Base. "We have work to do."

She nodded and followed him. They made their way towards the Core once more and Ken bent down to look at the pipes leading up to it. He frowned hard.

"What is it?" Kouen asked as she leaned over his shoulder.

"I think it would be better to disable the core in the Base in the Human world."

"Why?"

"I think they are linked somehow, though I'm not too sure how." He stretched his arm forward and touched the huge center core but gasped and pulled it away as if the tube had burned him. "Ow!" he rubbed the back of his neck. And suddenly a vision came to him. He had seen something different in the Dark Ocean just before Daemon was thrown into it. At first he had thought it was a Control Tower, but now that he thought about it, it looked like the Core of this Base. 'They're connected through the Dark Ocean.' He thought to himself.

Kouen looked closely at Ken, "Are you okay?"

He nodded and stood up. He looked up at the huge cylinder. "We'll be able to disable both Bases when we fight Osamu and in the meantime, that virus I planted will shut down all his computers, so he won't be able to control any digimon or enter into the Digital world. And if we are lucky and it does what I hoped it would do, it will disable all the Black Rings."

"You're incredible. I have no idea what we would have done without you." She gave him a sad half grin and he nodded.

"Thanks, but if it wasn't for Shinsei, I don't know if I would have shared this information or forced myself to remember my past." He looked down and then at the hole in the wall.

"Still, I admire you. Both of you, Ken and you have this strength that I have never had. I sometimes think that if I had ever gone through what you two have gone through, I would have broken down and given up long ago. I just hope one day I have that strength."

Ken smiled, "You do, trust me." He moved to the hole, "We should go. The others must be awake by now and wondering where we are."

She nodded and they made their way back to the port. Not a single digimon attacked them; they must have seen the fight between Hushicyoumon and Daemon and thought it safer to leave them be.

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

Kouen ran across the street and fell to her knees to look into Osamu's face. "Are you okay?" she asked desperately.

The violet haired boy nodded dully, still in shock. She glanced down at Ken and asked him the same and he nodded too, his mop of indigo hair falling in his eyes. She smiled and helped them up, still looking intensely into Osamu's face.

She straightened his glasses and smiled brightly. "They were crooked." She added breathlessly.

Osamu nodded and stared at her green eyes, which burned brightly with a fire of life.

"Would you like to have some ice-cream or something sugary, you know for the shock?" she asked them and Ken happily said that he would.

Mutely, Osamu nodded again. Funny how a young genius with a vocabulary that could make a dictionary jealous, couldn't find any words to say to this young girl. That's when he knew. That's when he knew there was something very special about her.

Suddenly the scene changed and she was a young woman, fifteen and dressed in a white evening dress that flowed like silk around her legs and danced by her glittering sandals. Her hair was just reaching her shoulder blades and bounced around her lightly. Her large green eyes sparkled and she looked ethereal. She secured the white chiffon shoal around her shoulders and grinned at him. "Are you going to stare at me all night, or are we going to go to the spring formal?"

Again the scene shifted and this time Kouen was standing before the Kaiser in a white Ao Dai. She looked as if she had been crying for a few days but had pulled herself together at the last minute. "Please, Osamu. Come home. Come home to me. We miss you. I miss you!"

He turned from her, "I can't. I don't belong there. Everyone expects so much from me and I can never fail. Do you know how stressful that is? I can't take it there, but here, it's different, I'm my own person."

"Here, you're a tyrant Osamu!" she burst forth and shook her head.

"Maybe!" he yelled, "But at least I'm happy and I don't need anyone, just like my brother doesn't need me!"

"You don't need me?" she asked so softly that he only just caught it. Tears teetered on the edge of her eyes but she held them back.

He turned slowly to her and stared at her quivering lip. He walked forward and held her shoulders. "Of course I need you. I love you, Kouen. I didn't mean that, I'm sorry. But I can't go back." An idea suddenly came to him, "Stay here, with me! Be my Emperoress."

She turned away, "I can't do that, you know I can't. I have to take care of my father."

"How is he?" he asked after a while, as if deciding to ask it.

"He's dying." She stated and the tears did fall now.

He took her in his arms and held her, "Please stay with me. Here, you don't have to face all that. It's just a game here, nothing is real. But back there you have to face all of your problems. Be my Emperoress."

She pulled away and looked into his eyes. "If I say yes, will you promise to come home even just for a day?"

He looked hard at her and for a long while thought about it. But then her eyes began to sparkle again, even though it was with tears and he nodded mutely.

This time only a few weeks had passed while Kouen had been living with him in the Digital world and he approached her in the bedroom. "It's ready for you. I wanted to give you a gift and now it's ready."

She turned around and looked at him, nodding solemnly again looking as if she had been crying. She never asked a question the whole time he prepared her for the Ancient Phoenix Spirit but when it was done, she awoke, her eyes blazing with power. He smiled down at her and she looked up at him, a smile to match.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"Strange, but energized." She got up from the table and looked in a mirror. "I don't look any different…" she suddenly clutched her head and bent over.

"Kouen?" he asked worriedly, "What is it, what's wrong?"

"My head…feels like it's going to explode. Voices, so many voices." She fell to her knees and began screaming.

"I never meant to hurt you, Kouen. You have to know that. I stopped being the Kaiser. It's over, I swear, just say you forgive me please."

This time she lay in a white clinical bed, a nametag on her wrist and wearing a white hospital gown. She looked at him coldly and said nothing. Her eyes were dull now and heavy rings around them suggested she hadn't been sleeping much. "Ken said that you still have the base in the digital world." She stated bluntly.

"Yes, but I don't use it."

"He also said it would not be a good idea for me to take you back. And I think he's right."

"You're going to listen to what he said? Kouen, I love you and I know you still love me and I'm sorry for what I did, I never meant to hurt you-"

"But you did!" she yelled, "You did hurt me Osamu. Yes, I love you, but I think it would be better if we didn't see each other for a while. Just to give me time to heal."

Unsatisfied, he nodded and left the room; throwing the roses he had brought her in the dustbin.

Osamu suddenly awoke in his bed and wiped the sweat off his brow. He hadn't dreamt of his past in a long time. His body shook as he got out of the bed and moved to the mirror in the bathroom. Tears sprang to his eyes, "I never meant to hurt you Kouen. I'm a monster, I'm sorry."

'Weak fool.' The dark side of him whispered, 'She was the one who hurt you. And your brother. They all betrayed you. She said she would never leave you and what did she do? The moment you were out of the picture, she went running into Yamato's arms! And your brother was the one to turn her against you! You don't need them. I'm all you have now.'

"She loves me, still." He cried and picked up a razor blade from the basin, "She told me so, the night we…"

'Are you really strong and brave enough to do that? To take your own life?'

He dropped the blade and looked up in the mirror, an evil glint in his eyes, "Now why would I want to take my own life when I can take so many others?" he asked with a laugh and prepared for the day ahead.

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

"Morning guys." Daisuke grinned as Kouen and Ken entered the warehouse and sat down at the breakfast table. "Where were you?"

"The Digital world." Kouen stated.

"What?" Yamato gasped, "Alone?"

"Oh trust me," Ken laughed, "nothing would touch us after she fought Daemon."

"Daemon was there?" Yolei's eyes grew wide, "Are you okay?"

He nodded and kissed her good morning, "She was amazing. In her advanced form, she could have killed him, but instead we sent him to the Dark Ocean."

"Ken," Davis marveled, "you opened the gate way again?"

He nodded, "Anyway, I planted a virus in Osamu's computer and I think if we are going to go through with this plan, we should do it tonight."

"Sounds like a plan." Yolei nodded in agreement.

Yamato offered Kouen some toast with mashed banana on it, a favorite breakfast of hers. "Breakfast?"

She grimaced at it and pushed it away, "No thanks Yamato, I'm not very hungry right now."

Ken turned to her, "Really? That's amazing, after evolving like that I thought you would be starving."

She shrugged, "Well, my stomach is squirming at the idea of food right now, but then I'm not really a breakfast person so early in the morning. Give me an hour and I'll probably be so hungry I could eat a stack of toast with mashed banana on it."

She turned to Ken who had said nothing all this time. "Um, Ken, can I talk to you in the dojo?"

He looked up and nodded. He pushed out his chair and followed her to the room. "What is it?"

She opened the cabinet with the weapons on display and took a Samurai sword off the top shelf and held it out to him. "I want you to have this."

He looked from the sword to her face, "That's your father's sword. You love that sword, I couldn't take it."

"When my father gave it to me, he told me that if I ever needed to use it, I should make sure it is for the right reasons. I'm not the one going to fight Osamu. You have already made that clear, so I want you to have it. A way of lending my strength to you when you use it. You have the right intentions behind using it." She held it out to him again and he took it.

He bowed, "Thank you, Kouen."

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

Kaiser: That's where you are ending this chapter?

Ken: Why do you ask a redundant question like that? Yes, that's where she is ending the chapter.

Kaiser: It's just that there's no cliffhanger.

Osamu: Excuse me? Did you not note the line about the fight happening tonight?

Wormmon: Clearly, the end is near, possibly the next chapter.

Nic: Looks that way. I've had so much fun writing this but I can't wait to finish it. Thanks to Akino Ame for all her inspiration! I mean without her, I probably wouldn't have done this much in such little time.

Kaiser: Little time? You've taken months to get this far!

Nic: Yeah, but have you looked at my schedule? And have you forgotten all the other stories I've been writing on?

Ken: How could we forget?

Kouen: Anyway, the point is, things are getting heavy and there's something happening that none of you know about, except Nic and me! Hahaha!

Ken: What's that?

Nic: That would be telling. You'll have to wait and see. Though I wander if anyone has any suspicions. 

Nic: (Updated AN). Hehe, okay, now Akino Ame knows too. Anyway, sadly there is only one more chapter left and an epilogue, but never fear, I'm working on the sequel as we speak and Akino and I are going to write a crossover between this story and her story With Broken Wings. Till next time, read and review.