Story: Fade In, Fade Out||Chapter: The Chosen Course
Chapter: 12-15||Words: 4,627||Total: 55,499
Characters: Daisuke, Kaiser, Chosen Children||Ship: Ken x Daisuke/Daisuke x Ken
Genre: Drama, Romance||Rated: PG-13n
Summary: Daisuke awakens to find himself at the feet of the Digimon Kaiser. Strange voices invade his mind, reality alters at a whim, and all he wants is to find his way home.
A D-3? Daisuke did his best to rub at his eyes, certain he was seeing things. Those were something that the Chosen had, not...not whatever it was that Mori was. He was obviously still getting his head screwed around with. Not a good feeling, even if it was one he was getting very comfortable with.
"Yes, a D-3." Mori tucked the device back into the pocket he'd taken it from. "My D-3. Kondo has one too. We really are Chosen Children. Of a sort."
Daisuke looked to where Unimon stood still, Mori's hand going through his mane lightly. "You're a Vaccine, aren't you? How can you let him do...these things?" His voice trailed off, as he realized he wasn't entirely all that certain just what it was that Mori was really doing. He had an idea of what was going on with him, but other than that, he was drawing complete blanks.
"He has his reasons. I don't agree with them, and I believe that your friends will put a stop to him before he goes as far as the Kaiser did." Unimon's response wasn't even close to what Daisuke had expected. "Mori, I love you, my friend, but you do know what you're doing to him is wrong."
Mori just rolled his eyes as he stood up. "You've said that before, and I've told you why."
"That doesn't mean I agree with it. I think I've already said that enough times." Unimon replied tartly, taking a couple of steps back to keep on looking up into his partner's face. "Let it go, Mori. It wasn't anyone's fault, much less the person you keep on blaming. It just happened."
The strange Chosen, if that's what he really was, looked from Unimon to Daisuke. "Unimon, I told you and Pidmon to take Motomiya to the lab. Kondo will be leaving to get V-mon shortly, won't you?" He turned slightly to where Kondo was standing, and Daisuke was a little surprise to see her flush just a trifle. He was pretty sure that the interactions between Ken and his minions hadn't been anything like what was going on here. Not that he'd ever had the chance to listen in on them, of course. But that was beside the point.
Daisuke yelped slightly as Pidmon's hands came down on his shoulders, and he jerked away as much as he could, barely noticing the chain that vanished as soon as the angelic Digimon touched him. Mori glanced back at him, the faintest of frowns touching his face. "Don't try to fight them, Motomiya. Just do as you're told until they've got you strapped back down."
As soon as the words were spoken, Daisuke found his muscles relaxing and his will to resist fading away. What in the... It had been annoying enough when this kind of thing had been happening when he thought he was going up against Ken. It was ten times as irritating now that he was fighting someone he didn't even know.
"As soon as you've done that, come back here, Unimon, and we'll go for the ride." Mori's promise was the last thing Daisuke heard before Pidmon and Unimon got him out of the throne room and escorted him down an eerily familiar blank hallway.
There was no way he could fight them, but they hadn't said he couldn't talk. "So, what is really going on here? You said something about it not being someone's fault, Unimon. Care to clue me in?"
"Not especially." Unimon replied calmly. Daisuke blinked; that wasn't exactly what he'd been expecting from how nearly-friendly the Digimon had been being to him.
"Why not?" He frowned, trying to think of just what it might be. "Is it because of Mori?"
Unimon looked at him from one eye. "Not exactly. I just don't think you're in a state that could really understand what I'd have to say." The confusion Daisuke was feeling must've made it to his face, as the Digimon kept on speaking. "How much do you really remember right now?"
Daisuke opened his mouth, not entirely certain what he was going to say, then closed it again. Unimon nodded firmly. "You see? You barely know your own name, much less what has happened in a very great amount of time. If I told you what Mori was doing, and why, you wouldn't understand any of it. It would confuse you even worse, and Mori would be forced to put even more of the elixir he's been working on in you. If you think you have memory problems now..."
Well, that made an annoying kind of sense. "All right." He didn't protest, couldn't protest as he was taken into the laboratory. He vaguely recalled waking up in here not all that long ago. It hadn't really improved that much since he'd been away from it.
Pidmon helped him onto the lab table that was a major feature of the room, and carefully strapped him in. None of the straps were too tight, nor did they have any give to them that he could use to escape. If Ken had been in possession of servants as devoted and dedicated as these were, they would never have been able to stop him.
Ken. He clamped his mind around the things he'd heard not all that long ago. Ken had expected to find him there when he woke up. There had been mentions of them as boyfriends. Did he love Ken? Did he really love Ken the way Miyako loved Koushirou?
Underneath all the Mushroom haze and confusion, he was certain of one thing now, more certain than he was of his own name: yes. He did love Ichijouji Ken.
Of course he was pretty sure this would make a lot more sense if he could remember why he loved him. Only the vaguest of imagery danced through his mind, of a warm presence near him, supporting him as he supported it, of being held and holding someone else, of good times and bad. It was enough to send him screaming into the night, if he'd been capable of it.
Why? How? The two words echoed in his mind as he tried to work past the effects of the serum running through his blood. All that seemed to want to bubble up were the things that Mori had said, about how it could very well make him go crazy or worse. The thought of someone else, anyone else, doing any kind of 'thinking for him' was enough to make him want to throw up.
How long would this stuff take to go through him? Would his memories come rushing back in like a tidal wave or would they just kind of pop up slowly? Or something in between? He fidgeted a little in his bonds, looking over to where Pidmon and Unimon were talking under their breath to each other. That kind of thing had never set right with Daisuke and he tried to hear something of what they were talking about. Some people called it eavesdropping. He thought of it, at least right now, as checking out what the enemy was doing. As nice as Pidmon and Unimon kind of were to him, keeping him away from the truth and his friends put them in the ranks of the bad guys.
"You think Kondo's going to do it?" Unimon's voice was just barely audible, and Daisuke wasn't even certain if he were hearing it correctly? Whatever Pidmon said in reply was even quieter, and Unimon nodded slightly. "But it's a risk worth taking."
Whatever else they might've said went unheard as a sudden wash of pain slammed directly into Daisuke's guts. Sweat broke out all over him, and he ground his teeth, sagging against the table. He was grateful suddenly for the straps holding him there. Without that kind of support, he probably would've fallen on the floor into an extremely ungraceful heap.
"Mori said something like that might happen," Pidmon's voice came a little more clearly now, and Daisuke couldn't bring himself to care at all. He couldn't have heard the angel when he was saying something that might be interesting, no, he had to hear him when he was in too much pain to care! "It's because of the serum being worked out of his system. Since he's had so much of it, it's causing a bad reaction."
Well, that was wonderful to know. He wondered if it would be very bad of him to want to strangle Mori several times over. He also wondered if he really, truly cared if it was bad of him, as long as it got the pain to stop.
Even without strangling his captor, though, the agony began to slowly subside. Daisuke took in long breaths of slightly medicine-scented air, wincing as he did so. This place smelled like a hospital, or like that lab where Koushirou worked on some of his experiments, the ones that had to be kept absolutely sterile. Neither of them made him feel any better.
Ow... Daisuke shifted around a little more in his restraints and closed his eyes for a few seconds. The pain still lingering under the surface seemed to fade away a little with that. He had a feeling it was more in his head than anything else, though. Jyou had told him several times that just closing your eyes didn't really help the pain, just the perception of it. That was fine by him. Thinking you weren't feeling pain was just as good as not actually feeling it. Sometimes even better, to his way of thinking.
A faint smile rippled across his face as he remembered that. If the pain also meant he was going to be getting his memories back, then he wanted to feel more pain. That didn't sound quite as right as he wanted it to, though.
If only there was some way he could decide what he remembered. He thought about Ken again, remembering what he could. Most of what came to his mind were those times when he was the Kaiser. There were a few things that seemed to be memories of after, seeing a great Digimon in front of them that appeared to be a combination of XV-mon and Stingmon...he had been absolutely wild, while Ken had stared at the new creation...at Paildramon...yes, that was his name, Paildramon, their Jogress evolution partner! Ken had stared at it with a kind of odd, worried calmness.
Jogress partner. Ken was his Jogress partner. The more he focused on that, the more he began to remember. It was still sketchy, though. There was just the thought of the two of them gazing in wonder at what they'd made together, when their hearts had beaten as one, their minds and souls completely in sync...
Had that been when he loved Ken the first time? No. They'd still only been friends at that time. Not even best friends yet. That wouldn't come for a while. But it had been when he had known in the deepest level of his being that he wouldn't ever be completely complete without Ken in his life somewhere, somehow.
That heartbeat thing. It was pretty cool, really. He'd never really thought about how odd it was to have that kind of thing happen, until it had. It just felt so natural. They didn't get any special spiffy powers because of it; it was just something that was part of them. Though one of those built-in locator devices like identical twins were supposed to have could've come in handy in the last week or two.
So when had he started to love Ken? He winced as another wave of pain shot through him, ground his teeth together, and did his best to ride it out. There could be memories on the other side he could use to find a way out here. Who knew, maybe he'd picked up some killer lock picking skills or something in the last few years. It wouldn't hurt to remember. Much.
As it ebbed away, he heard Unimon and Pidmon again. He was getting not to like to have to depend on them for any information, since they couldn't be nice enough to come over where he could hear them without having to strain his ears. "Mori better hurry if he wants to keep this guy. The worse the pain gets, the more he's going to remember."
"You know he's listening, right, Pidmon?" Daisuke was pretty sure that was amusement in Unimon's voice. "I can almost see his ears growing from here."
"Yes, I'm quite aware of that." Pidmon didn't seem to care all that much either. Daisuke decided the angel was trying to tell him something, without making it really obvious. Maybe he wasn't such a jerk of a winged pretty boy after all. "It's not as if he can do anything, either. You know what Mori said. His memories won't come back in any coherent order. He'll be worse than useless for a couple of days, and that's if he doesn't get any more of that stuff pumped into him. Which he will, as soon as Mori gets here."
Well, that wasn't exactly what he wanted to hear. Did it really matter now if he remembered why he loved Ken or what had led Ken to love him, if it would all be wiped away the moment Mori stuck him full of serum again?
Maybe it doesn't matter, but I'm going to do it anyway. Those are my memories, my life, and no one's going to keep them from me! Something in his mind clicked, reminding him that Mori had kept them from him fairly easily for two weeks now. He told that something in his mind to go away. No one kept what was his away from him forever!
Ken. That was the goal, to understand what had happened between them and how. So, that meant he'd figured out, decided, or somehow or other become gay. The thought didn't really bother him. His parents hadn't been all that thrilled about homosexuals, at least as far as he could remember, but he'd never had a problem with them. He probed back through the scattered remains of his memories, hunting for anything that could be a link to the past.
He stood in front of them, goggles in hand, fidgeting just a little. Ken was beside him, looking as calm and unruffled as he always had. Daisuke could read the few expressions the former Kaiser permitted on his face without a problem, though. Ken was just as nervous as he was. He was just a lot better at hiding it.
"Mom, Dad," he looked at his parents, remembering how they'd sat and looked so much like this when he'd first introduced Ken to them as his friend, so long ago. "I'm gay and Ken and I have been dating for about a month now."
He could almost hear the soft puff of air that was Ken's laugh at that. He was certain he felt it on the back of his head, if nothing else. But he didn't stop looking at his parents, and he definitely saw the look of confusion and horror in their eyes as what he said sank into them.
Daisuke grinned as he pulled that piece of memory out and tried to find a place in his jigsaw puzzle of a mind to put it. His parents hadn't really liked it right away, but in the three years it took for them to accept him and Ken, he'd done his best to stay on reasonably friendly terms with them. The few times he'd come to see them, he hadn't really brought up his relationship with Ken more than four or five times in a visit.
"I wonder what's taking Kondo so long." Pidmon turned his attention to the door for a few moments. "Getting his partner shouldn't really be taking her this long."
Unimon tossed his head carelessly. "I wish she'd hurry it up. If it gets much later, Mori's going to want to put off our ride again."
"You're getting obsessed with that ride. Someone might think you want to get Mori out of this place for a couple of hours." Pidmon rapped Unimon's shoulder lightly, and Daisuke caught a glimpse of an amused grin on his lips. "So he wouldn't get hurt if something should happen to happen, maybe?"
The four-footed Digimon snorted, prancing a little in place nervously. "You're imagining things. You know that you've been missing taking Kondo for your evening flights as much as I miss my rides with Mori."
Pidmon shook his head a little, amusement written all over him. "Maybe. But I'm not as irritable about it as you are. You're trying to save him and anyone with half an eye could see it. I'd bet even he could, if he paid enough attention." One hand flapped in Daisuke's direction. "Right?"
"Um...yeah, sure." Daisuke wasn't all that positive on what he was agreeing to, but it sounded all right. "What you said." Maybe he should really pay more attention to what was going on with them.
A slightly amused voice broke into the conversation, such as it was. "Are you two talking about me again?" Daisuke caught a glimpse of Kondo out of the corner of one eye, and held in her grip quite firmly was V-mon, squirming for all he was worth.
"V-mon!" Daisuke tried to sit up, and was jerked back down by the straps. "V-mon, hey, buddy!" The joy that surged through him at the sight of his partner was eclipsed only by the invisible stinging needles of pain that plunged into him a few heartbeats later. He threw his head back, slamming it against the table, and didn't care that he was screaming out loud in pain. It hurt too much to do anything but scream!
"Daisuke!" V-mon's voice pierced through the pain, but only a little. As if hearing it triggered something, a thousand other memories began to surge through Daisuke with the cry. Seeing V-mon for the first time, introducing him to his parents a little after they'd defeated BelialVamdemon, having to convince Jun that she couldn't take him as a visual aid to her project 'My Brother, The Chosen Child Who Saved The World', and so many more he couldn't even begin to classify them all.
As the pain and the memory tidal wave began to ease off, Daisuke sagged against the table. There was no way he was going to be able to get out of here this time. He'd been shaky on his feet before. Now, if he could stand for more than two seconds, even with help, he'd be luckier than even he had a right to believe he could be.
"What's going on with him?" Daisuke couldn't tell who V-mon was talking to just yet. It still hurt too much to open his eyes. Maybe this meant more of it was coming out of him? He couldn't be sure, but it sounded about right. He wanted a shower. Or a nice long hot bath. One that lasted three or four hours. Or days. Days would be nice.
"That really isn't your concern." Whoever V-mon was talking to, it was Mori who answered. Daisuke dragged his eyes open, ignoring the pain for a few moments to look at his captor. He supposed, in a mild sort of way, that Mori was good looking enough. Nowhere near close to Ken's good looks, of course, but then, who could be? When you had the best, why bother looking at the rest?
Kondo cleared her throat briefly. "Where did you want me to put him, Mori?"
"Over there should be good." Over there turned out to be a small cage, with a solid metal top, bottom, and three sides. The fourth side had a barred door, which Kondo opened to put the small Digimon inside. There was just enough space for him in there, but he couldn't move all that much. Mori came over to look down at him, a thoughtful expression in his dark eyes, one Daisuke didn't like at all. A faint flicker of memory surged in of Mori looking down at him like that, and he flinched, trying not to think about it too much. If he'd known being leader and the Chosen of Courage and Friendship and Ken's boyfriend would lead into things like that...
He would've still accepted them all, and begged for more. Because the upsides definitely outweighed the downsides.
"So what are you going to do, Mori?" Kondo appeared a little interested, but nowhere on the level that Daisuke was. Harm to him was one thing. Harm to his partner was in a whole different level of annoyedness.
"The next batch of the serum is finally ready. I'm going to deliver it to both of them when I get back from my ride with Unimon." Mori went over to a long counter and picked a vial of something up, looking at it for several moments. "I'm aware he's been getting his memory back. The pain spasms are proof of that." His brow was furrowed as he turned back to where Daisuke could see him more clearly. "I can't decide if I should wait until all of it has cleared out of his system or go ahead and do it before then."
Daisuke decided it was time he took part in this. It was his mind they were talking about, after all. "What's the difference?" Who knew, he might even get more answers.
"The effects on you will be dependent on just what I do to you." Mori picked up a laptop that reminded Daisuke a little of the one Koushirou almost always carried with him, his fingers tapping the keys briefly. "I've kept a record of your progress since I first started this, for the sake of science, of course."
Daisuke shook his head. All the bad guys in two worlds to choose from, and he got the one who had a patent on the 'mad scientist' routine. Where were the psychotic world-conquerors when you really needed them?
Mori put the laptop back down and came over to Daisuke, staring down into his eyes. "Now, before I take my leave, there's something I need to know from you." A kind of expectant hush fell over the room, like what he'd heard when Qinglongmon was about to say something really momentous. He was hard-pressed to avoid coughing or making some kind of noise just to break it. "Exactly what did Pidmon and Unimon say before I came in here?"
Daisuke tried to keep his mouth shut, but the collar had other ideas it seemed. He spilled everything that he'd heard, including what they seemed to think Kondo was up to. He caught a look at her, and was a little surprised to find her looking a little amused. If she was planning something, she was very cool about it. He liked that. If he got out of this place with his memories intact enough, he wouldn't have minded being her friend. If she didn't take the eventual beating to a bloody pulp he planned on doing to Mori the wrong way.
"And that's everything?" Mori's gaze bored into Daisuke's eyes, and he found it impossible to look away. The eyes weren't the violet ones he'd seen in earlier images in his mind, when his brain had been this jerk's playtoy, but they were just as fascinating at the moment. He knew exactly what a small helpless mouse had to feel like when being entranced by a snake.
This so sucked.
"Yes, that's everything." Daisuke nodded slightly, most of his vision now taken up by Mori's eyes. "Everything they said."
"Good." Mori turned back to the rest of his 'court'. "Unimon, go get ready for the ride. Pidmon, you've got guard duty on the main entrance. Kondo, stay in here, keep an eye on Motomiya and his partner."
Daisuke had almost been expecting something like 'if they're not here when I get back, there will be dire consequences to pay'. Instead, it looked as if whatever Kondo was planning, it meant nothing to Mori. That had a lot of implications, and very few of them were ones that he liked.
Of course, the shaking that went all through the room and apparently throughout the entire base just then was something he liked even more. It had the feeling to him that something very important was about to start happening. Vials and bottles on the counter Mori had stood at shook with the tinkle of glass, and the very table he was strapped to seemed to move around some. A loud explosion echoed all through the place a few heartbeats later, followed by another and another.
"What's going on?" Unimon shouted, doing his best to avoid falling over. Having four feet helped, it seemed, but not enough with this kind of shaking and quaking going on. "Mori?"
"It must be some kind of quake." Mori headed to the doorway that he'd come in by. "Cancel the previous orders, Unimon, Pidmon, Kondo, come with me. I want to know if we'll have to move this place."
Daisuke glared over, bending his neck the best he could. "Hey! What about me and V-mon? Are you just going to leave us here? What if the ceiling caves in or something?" He didn't think it would, but he was also quite certain that he'd heard this kind of explosion before, and he liked it.
"Yeah!" V-mon piped in, a mischievous gleam in his eyes. "You wouldn't want us to get killed before you can do that brain-warping thing, right? What kind of fun would you have messing with Ken's head if you did that?"
Daisuke's proud grin fell apart as Mori turned back to them, a thoughtful look in his eyes. "And just how do you know what my plans are, little Digimon? You haven't been here long enough to know anything."
"You'd be surprised at what Kondo talks about when you're not around!" V-mon declared without missing a beat, grinning like a maniac. Daisuke really approved of that. Had he been getting lessons from Patamon? Sure, the little guy wasn't all that scary like that but when he was Tokomon, he looked fit to chew your face off! "She's a really nice person you know. I wouldn't think an evil jerk like you would want her around. She could let just anyone in here to screw up what you're planning, you know. Anyone!"
Mori stalked back over to them, fires of fury sparking in his eyes. "You have no idea of what you're talking about, V-mon. Kondo has been more loyal to me than she has to anyone else in her entire life, and it's a loyalty I return. You're not dealing with some kind of idiot pair of 'villains' from anime who would backstab each other without a second thought. What we've been through rivals, if not surpasses everything that you and your little friends have done!"
He came a little closer, glaring at V-mon as if this were some kind of an insult to him personally. "And let me inform you that Kondo would not let just any kind of random idiot into my stronghold, to do who knows what to the decorating and upsetting all of my plans!"
"Actually, you're right. She didn't let just any kind of random idiot in here. She let in some very specific, and some very upset, Chosen of the Digital World."
Daisuke pulled his head around one more time, and grinned ear to ear. "About time you guys got here, Takeru!"
To Be Continued