Nightingale: ch5— Yami sezu ni Hikari (darkness without the light)

-crying- I am so bad! -wails- I-I didn't put the frontier's names in dub; yet all the 02 names were! It messed me up and I cant do alot of diologue for like, 18 people! Some people didn't talk! my chapters are so short and I just want to do the angst! wwaaaaaaaah! -sniff- well, youve all waited patiently and so, I give you chapter five. -sniff-

RYU/ignores uper rants/Ok, the last kouken scene was not really angsty, but this part IS! yey for angst!

Im sorry for my shortness, this will be longer because I decided to put two chapters together. Lucky you.

RYU: Again, if Evide owned digimon, I wouldn't be doing a disclaimer. So Evide does not own anything in this fic except for me and her overactive imagination.

"He called himself the Digimon Emperor..."

Ken felt like he had been dumped into a lake of freezing water. Could it really have been his past come back to hunt him? But then... what did he want with Kouichi? Ken remembered when he had heard yelling... it must have been the kaiser. What was going on?

Kouichi stopped climbing as the other seemed to freeze up. He glanced at Ken worriedly when he didn't move. He heard a soft /klunk/ and his heart sank... The emperor was coming... "Ken! C'mon, lets go!" Kouichi gave Ken a slight push and they rushed up the rest of the way. Ken had a slightly glazed look in his eyes, lost in deep thought. Kouichi urged him through the trap door with Wormmon and then shut it for safe measure, locking the latch.

A sudden darkness enveloped them and they couldn't see... then it disappeared just as quickly. Ken shook his head... his thoughts were becoming hazy as if he was having a head ache while Kouichi seemed transfixed with something behind Ken...

The chosen of Kindness whipped around to find a huge glass dome over an equally huge lightbuld. The light would have burned his eyes... if it was light at all. Darkness swam over Ken and he immediately felt a chill run up his spine. It couldn't be... of all the places; it just couldn't be...

Ken slowly faced out the window to gaze upon the eery water that stretched out below him forever. His heart sank as he finally recognized the darkness around him... and he knew where he was. Him and Kouichi were prisoners of the lighthouse in the Dark Ocean.

Kouji crossed his arms in annoyance. He didn't trust these 'chosen children' and he couldn't even be sure they knew where Kouichi was. Sure they said that they say his d-tecktor signal, but what if its a trap? It was all very aggravating and it got on Kouji's nerves. Right now, him and his friends were being dragged along to one of the others' house and Kouji was NOT feeling comfortable at all.

"You really need to lighten up, Kouji." Takuya pat his friend on the shoulder heartedly and received an icy glare from the warrior of light. As they continued to walk something caught the twin's eyes in the window display of an electronics store. All the televisions were fuzzy and dark with static that looked like water running across the screen. Kouji had to stop walking completely and noticed that the screen wasn't static at all... it WAS water. Rippling and running and pulsing that made it look like static from far away. But there was an unmistakable patch of beach with a tall tower of sorts sitting on it... a lighthouse.

"Stop window shopping and lets go!" Zoe pulled at Kouji's collar who stumbled backwards and glared at her. He could have sworn that the light from the lighthouse was... darkness.

It was familiar... scary familiar. Kouichi felt chills race up his spine and goose bumps started to form on his pale skin. Ken seemed to be doing even worse; freezing up and going white as a sheet.

Kouichi shook himself; "Ken, the emperor is coming! How do we get out?" no response... "Ken?"

"I can't digivolve. Ken doesn't have his digivise." Wormmon stated sadly. Digivise... was that like a d-tector? Kouichi's hand automatically went to his back pocket as he thought about it... and he gasped when he felt something there. A familiar black and grey digital devise hummed to life when Kouichi took it out from hiding. Ken looked at him with a confused stare.

"You don't have a digimon..." He said to the other. Kouichi smiled at him knowingly and pressed the scan button. A familiar blue light flashed out of the top and data quickly swam around Kouichi's hand. Only instead of being a regular, comforting blue stream of data it was an eery red color. Kouichi suddenly felt very nervous and he became aware of the darkness around him.

Ken seemed to notice his hesitation, being very curious as to what exactly was to happen. "Something wrong?" He wondered in slight concern. Kouichi shook his head... it was nothing... probably.

"Spirit... Evolution!"

It was cold... something was wrong. The... darkness...

It wasn't right... it wasn't right. It wasn't right!

"Aaaaaahhh!"

Ken watched, perplexed and also horrified as Kouichi was enveloped within a blood red cocoon of data. He had never seen anything like it and was confused as to if this was a good thing or something awful had gone wrong. The darkness from the lighthouse washed over them and the next thing Ken knew he was not with Kouichi any longer. In his place was a digimon.

He had long silky blond hair that looked oily and his whole body was covered in black and red armor. What was really unnerving was that all over his armor where red eyes, glaring darkly at him.

"Duskmon... " the creature said as it's evolution ended. Ken was shocked into science... when the loud banging of the emperor caught both their attention. Ken only gasped, Wormmon coming in between his partner as the trap door burst open.

The kaiser strode in angrily to hear a sudden shattering of glass and watched as a tall, dark figure jumped out of the broken window. He looked down, temper rising when he noticed a familiar teen in the figure's clutches and all but screamed as they hit the ground without damage.

Ken was set gently on his feet, the kaiser's frustrated yell echoing above them. The chosen child griped Wormmon as he watched another stream of code envelope duskmon. It fell away to reveal Kouichi out cold on the ground.

"Kouichi! Hey, wake up!" Ken shook him gently and sighed in relief as he started to gain consciousness.

"Ken?" he asked quietly, looking up at him with tired eyes. Ken nodded and helped his friend up.

"Are you allright?" Ken asked in concern. Kouichi tucked hair behind his ear nervously and nodded vaguely. Ken glanced at the tower and then helped Kouichi to his feet.

"The emperor is still after us. We need to get out of here." Wormmon said, encouraging the teens to move onward. Kouichi followed Ken, rubbing his arms as if he were cold, and the digimon trailed behind the two to keep an eye on them. Wormmon took a fleeting glance at the lighthouse once more and when he turned around he noticed a dark stain on Kouichi's back.

"Kouichi, your bleeding!" the insect spoke up suddenly.

"Uhn?" Ken strode around to observe the other's backside.

"It must've reopened," Ken whispered half to himself, lifting the green cloth a bit to see lines of raw skin shedding trails of blood.

"It's fine, really. I'm okay," Kouichi said nervously but Ken could obviously see that Kouichi was in pain.

"Hey, it's allright. I want to help." Ken pulled off Kouichi's shirt to reveal two stripes of red, raw skin crisscrossing over his back irritably. Kouichi untied his red shirt and the other ripped strips from it to tie over the wounds carefully, as to not hurt him. What was left of the shirt Kouichi slung over his neck like a scarf and then put his over shirt back on.

"Thank you, Ken." he whispered hoarsely, giving the other a halfhearted smile. Ken smiled back, then glanced at the lighthouse worriedly. The trio was about to move on again when an ear-splitting scream made the two humans double over.

"Oh no, Ken!" Wormmon looked at the two worriedly as they fell to their knees with their hands over their ears. Ken cried out as the eery wail rocked him to the very bone. Kouichi felt tears prickle out of his eyes painfully as his mother's scream echoed in his head...

—————>>

The next thing Kouichi knew was that he was on the ground, the sounds of waves on the shore hypnotizing him slowly. He groaned as he got up and fell back down with a loud /crack/ Pain zapped up his back like it had before and Kouichi looked up to see the dark eyes of the kaiser glare at him. And in his unoccupied hand was Ken; out cold.

"Let go of him!" Kouichi shouted angrily. The emperor looked at him in mild amusement and then at the boy in his arms.

"You mean him?" He mocked, taking the whip and running it under Ken's chin like a snake.

"Don't you touch him!" /crack/ Kouichi winced and put his hand on his offended shoulder where he could feel warm liquid seep through his shirt.

"I don't think that is up to you, boy. Now you better do as I say or your little friend here... won't ever wake up." The emperor took Ken's chin in his hands and ran a finger down his cheek seductively. Kouichi could just here Ken's hard, shallow breathing.

"Now, warrior of darkness, give me the seed."

"I don't know what your talking about!"

The emperor chuckled deeply, "What I mean is, your spirit."

"Is that what this is all about?" Kouichi burst out angrily, receiving a sharp whip to the face. He was tempted to just beat this guy up, reaching for his d-tector.

"Ah, ah, ah. You wouldn't want little Ken-chan here to get hurt now, would you?" He was trapped. He'd have to rat his way out...

"So how am I supposed to give you the spirit, then?" And the most evil, dark smirk spread across the kaiser's face.

"Die, of course." Kouichi growled deep in his throat, his looking for Wormmon in vain. "It's either you, or Ken." The emperor was toying with him, knowing that Kouichi would do anything for his friends... and he was right. With nothing else he could think of doing without hurting Ken, Kouichi stood up with his head down and his fists tight at his sides. He carefully stepped backwards up to the cliff's edge.

"Let Ken go." his voice was surprisingly strong but wavered in fear. The emperor smirked and through his charge to the side.

"One wrong move and Ken pays the price!" He reminded, gripping his whip. Kouichi's heels where almost off the land, making rocks fall to the waiting water below.

There was a sudden flash of light... pure light, coming from the shore. Kouichi stepped forward as the light grew increasingly stronger. It was so... calming. Like how light should feel; and it shown so brightly through all the darkness...

...Hikari

The chosen children all held out their d-3's to the computer screen. The frontier followed suit, holding out their d-tectors in hope.

"Digiport Open!" Kari yelled and everyone was pulled into white, hot light. As it faded darkness surrounded them all and the scenery before them melted into an ocean...

There was a sudden, collective gasp as everyone spotted two figures dot a cliff. Kouji in particular stepped forward. A fuzzy recognition swam through the back of his mind and he could think of only one thing.

Kouichi. His brother was up there. His tiwn brother was about to fall off a cliff!

"Kouichi!"

"That's not possible!" the kaiser growled angrily. "I am so close!" he gripped his whip once again and brought it up into the air. It came down with a quick swipe onto Kouichi's face who doubled back in surprise.

...right off the edge of the cliff.

To Be Continued...

HAHAHAHA! Didn't expect all that did ya? mwahaha! Now thats what I call a cliff hanger!

RYU/lifts eyebrow/ ok, I think you need to calm down... and FINISH this already! your giving me a heart attack with all of your cliff-hangers!

>Hahahaha! Hehehehe... just wait... /wrings hands/

RYU: you don't know what to do next, do you?

>...no comment

RYU: (sigh) it might take a tiny bit longer to update this time around. please ecourage Evide or give an idea. It would help alot.