Chapter 18

Daemon sneered down at the now unconscious Ken. Then after several moments of sneering at him, he smiled wickedly.

"You already have your wings Ichijouji...but soon...yes...soon ...you will have more than you had before... besides wings...Hahahahah!" Daemon laughed as he hid back into the shadows of the room while he waited for ken to awaken. he was about to leave, when a sudden pink light shone and engulfed Ken. Daemon cursed when he saw that Ken's Crest of Kindness had made his devil looking wings change into smaller fluffier wings. Daemon growled under his breath. This was going to be harder than he originally thought.

"KEN!" cried Yolei. She had been sobbing for what seemed like hours now as she stared at the place in the sky where Daemon and Ken had disappeared.

Davis, TK, Kari, and Cody all knew it was devastating for her, considering that the two of them had such a close bond. They loved each other, and it was very difficult to lose someone like that. But they all knew that just standing there wasn't going to do anything. Looking at each other, TK and Davis finally walk over to Yolei and grab her by the arms.

"Come on Yolei" started Davis.

"Let's go" finished TK.

Yolei whipped her head to look at both Davis and TK and glared.

"What? And leave Ken all alone with Daemon? No! We have to go save him!" she cried. Wormmon, who had been sobbing as much as Yolei for his kidnapped partner spoke up at this.

"She's right" he concluded. "We can't leave Ken-chan alone with the evil forces. He's already been under their control and I won't have it be repeated. He's my responsibility and so therefore I will get him."

Yolei nodded at Wormmon's declaration.

"Yeah" snapped TK sarcastically. "And how do you suppose you'll do that Wormmon? Huh? You can't even digivolve without Ken here. And Yolei, what can you do besides get kidnapped." Yolei went silent at this. "Now I suggest we all go back to the real world, rest, and some back to defeat Daemon. We'll be much more prepared then."

"TR's right" Piped up Davis. Yolei only crossed her arms.

Shivering, Ken slowly lifted his eyelids to see what was around him. Darkness. Nothing but darkness. He moved into a sitting position, and on the way up, his hands scratched at the floor, and made a loud screech. Looking down, Ken saw two things. One, the floor was shiny like a mirror, and his hands had long sharp fingernails, like a cat's. His eyes wide in fear, he looked at the rest of himself.

Fur.

Fur was covering his body, underneath his Tamachi uniform. Long gray cat hairs were all over him save for his hands. The fur ended at the wrists. Something thumped softly behind as he felt it hit the ground. He turned around to see that he had a long gray tail. He choked back a cry in fear.

That was when Daemon made his appearance.

"So..." he hissed. Ken turned to his voice. "What do you think of the knew you..." Ken looked down at the ground and stared at his reflection.

"Tigramon..."

Ken looked up at him in confusion and utter fear. "Don't you see it...?" asked Daemon in a riddling voice. Ken just continued to stare at him wide eyed in fear. "You're not a pure human anymore Ken Ichijouji. No...In fact, you aren't quite a digimon yet either. But you will be..."

Ken choked back another cry of fear yet the tears stung at his eyes.

"You will soon get to see your friends...and they will get to see the new you..."

Yolei flopped onto her bed, utterly and completely depressed. Wormmon lay on her pillow, tears still in his sleepy eyes. Hawkmon looked between his two friends and sighed.

"Oh honestly Yolei. You really aren't doing anything to improve things. Look at Wormmon! You are not the only one suffering here!" said the bird digimon, exasperated. Yolei shot him a deadly look but Hawkmon refused to be intimidated by it. He put his feather arms on his hips and glared right back.

Yolei sighed as she sat up, hugging her pillow. She was currently in her green pajamas. "Yeah...I know I'm not the only one suffering. Ken is suffering too. By, god only knows what! Who knows what that nasty Daemon could be doing to him. And-"

"OH...!" cried Wormmon, distressed. Yolei and Hawkmon both looked back at the little worm to find Wormmon sobbing again.

"Wormmon, what's the matter?" asked Yolei, turning to Ken's partner. Wormmon didn't answer as he tried to calm down a bit.

"Every digimon and their partner have a bond, or connection of you will" he sobbed. "Well, I just lost Ken's bond. I can feel it. Before I could feel his presence you could say. I don't know how to explain it...but I don't anymore, and I worry that maybe something terrible has happened to Ken."

Hawkmon and Yolei both looked at each other, their in full of concern. What did this mean?

Early that next morning, all the digidestined went to the digital world. It was a Saturday to Yolei's relief, and they didn't have to worry about going to school. They teleported to the same place they lost Ken, to start looking for clues that would help find him. This time though, Izzy was with them.

"You'll be able to find him with your computer, right Izzy?" Yolei had asked him desperately. Izzy shrugged.

"I don't really know to be honest Yolei. Daemon could have taken him anywhere in the digital world. It may take a while to find him" was Izzy's logical answer.

"Look no more you Digi-brats!" came a familiar voice. Everyone looked over to the right of them to see the figures of at least twenty cat-like digimon.

Gatomon piped up at the sight of them. "That's Tigramon. A cat digimon. They may look cute and cuddly, but their Deadly Claw attacks are well, deadly." she announced.

Everyone prepared for battle. The Tigramon had short blue hair, gray fur, tails, wings, and deadly claws.

"Patamon digivolve to...Angemon!"

"Veemon digivolve to...Ex-Veemon!"

"Hawkmon digivolve to...Aquilamon!"

"Armidillomon digivolve to...Anchelomon!"

"Gatomon armor-digivolve to...Nefertimon...the Angel of Light!"

As battle ensued, Davis took hold of Wormmon, and as the digidestined battled, a single Tigramon watched beyond his fellow Tigramon's, watching the battle. It's blue eyes were sad and downcast.

'This is wrong...' It thought.

Eventually, digidestined were able to defeat the Tigramon.

"Deadly Paw!" one attacked in vain.

"Queen's Paw!" Nefertimon attacked back.

After the battle was about over, daemon made his appearance.

"I must congratulate you children. You have defeated my small army of Tigramon, but I still have two tricks up my sleeve. First, I am not who you all think." At this, he used a different voice. One TK remembered perfectly.

"Devimon!" he cried in surprise and anger.

At this, Daemon changed into Devimon, and then, with a snap of his fingers, the little Tigramon who had been hiding in the shadows emerged from the blackness of the trees.

Yolei paid no attention to any of this. She only wanted to know one thing, and one thing only. "What have you done to Ken?" she demanded. Kari and TK tried to calm her down.

Devimon laughed. "You want to see your precious Ken? Here he is!"

And with that, the Tigramon walked up to them and stood there. Their digimon were prepared to attack if anything happened.

"Yolei..." the Tigramon whimpered in Ken's voice. Everyone gasped.

"So...what do you think of the new Ken? Or should I say, Tigramon."

Tears came to Ken's eyes as he looked down at himself in shame. He was a monster. He was no longer human. No longer good enough to be friends with them. No longer good enough for Yolei...

"Ken!" cried Yolei and she ran and draped her arms around ken, embracing him in a long warm hug.

"Now...Why did you do this to him?" asked Izzy.

"I did it because Ken is the only one who can release the Golden Radiance. The only one who can stop me. He released me from my prison while he was still the Digimon Emperor when he used me to create Kimeramon. I've been free this whole time, biding my time to figure out the best way to stop him from sealing me away for good. And here is the best and easiest way! To turn him into a digimon, so his human powers could not be used!" Devimon explained in a cackling voice. "Remember your cancer Ken! That wasn't cancer you had, it was me! The hair loss the loss in weight! All me! You were already starting to change, but your body was trying to keep you from changing, making it seem like you had a cancer!"

Izzy and the others glared at him as Yolei and ken just held onto each other, listening. "But you forgot one thing Devimon, as long as Ken is human on the inside, he can still use the Golden Radiance!"

"Ah yes. I thought about that. And I have already taken care of that little problem. See, the longer Ken is a digimon, the more and more he forgets about what it was like as a human. The more he forgets about the Real World." Devimon laughed.

Everyone's eyes were toward Ken, who stared back at them blankly. Ken then looked up at Devimon and scowled.

"Now...if you don't mind...its time to finally get rid of you all!" Devimon was about to attack, when everyone's digivice started glowing, ken's in particular.

"What's this?" demanded Devimon, furious.

Everyone smiled. "It looks like our digivices have other plans for you Devimon" hissed TK. With that, they all raised their digivice towards Devimon. Bright lights shot from each of them and hit Ken's. Then Ken's digivice shot a golden light towards Devimon, and after several minutes of getting hit from it, and screaming in pain, Devimon was destroyed.

Their digivices stopped glowing and things returned to normal. TK checked on Kari to make sure she was alright as Wormmon jumped out of Davis' hands to jump over to ken and Yolei.

"Ken...?" he whimpered up at his partner. ken looked down at him and smiled.

"Hello..." Ken paused a minute, as though he was trying to remember his partner's name. "Wormmon."

"Ken" started Izzy, walking over to him. "What is your last name?"

All eyes were on ken.

"Digimon?" he tried.

Yolei was close to tears. "What's your first name?" asked Izzy calmly.

"Oh...That's easy! Tigramon!" said Ken happily.

"Ken..." choked Yolei. "What do you remember?"

"That your the prettiest girl I've ever met, and I'm going out with you" he said. "And your names. TK, Kari, Davis, Izzy, and Cody. Then of course Yolei.

Ken had pointed to wrong person every time he said a name. He called Yolei, Kari. Davis, Cody. TK, Davis. Cody, TK. And he called Kari, Yolei.

"Is that not right?" Ken asked when he saw their faces. He then sighed and fell to the ground, hugging Wormmon close to his chest. "This is it. I'm finally a monster. A monster who can't even remember his friend's names."

"let's leave these guys alone" whispered Kari. The others then left.

Yolei kissed him on the cheek. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, you the cutest monster I've ever seen." Ken gave a ghost of a smile at these words. Yolei's eyes widened.

ken's titled his head. "Do you hear a humming sound?" he asked.

Yolei listened and her eyes widened again is realization.

"Ken...its coming from you. You're purring Ken! Oh! How cute!" she cried. Wormmon, who was leaning against Ken's chest chuckled.

Just then, large cat ears emerged from underneath Ken's hair. Ken shivered. "I'm getting worse by the minute" he sobbed. In response, Yolei only hugged him tighter.

"Don't worry ken," she whispered, playing with his new cat ears. "We'll change you back somehow."

Yolei was about to kiss him on the lips when the kiss was interrupted by long white whiskers popping out of Ken's cheeks. Yolei looked at him and saw that he now had a cat's mouth. And his eyes changed slightly from being normal, to more cat-like.

"Yolei...you still love me right...even though I'm a digimon..." asked Ken.

"Yes ken. We'll change you back" She hugged him. "I promise."