I want to thank all of the people who reviewed so far cuz it's really nice knowing that people are actually reading this and think it doesn't totally suck. I have the entire story planned out now, but I kinda suck at transitions between major events. So if the story seems a bit jumpy or whatever, please, please, please, let me know so I can work on that.

Please note: Thoughts that are strictly Ken's are like so, thoughts that are only the Kaiser's are like so. It should make more sense now. Ken usually listens to the voice because it has control over him. It's probably important to mention that most of his speech and actions are based on the Kaiser's thoughts.

This is a Ken/Kari and there will be some violence, not-too graphic romance scenes (not a lime or lemon), and possible strong use of language

Shattered

Chapter Four: A Good Look at the Enemy

Kari spent the majority of the next two days sleeping. Unless Ken woke her up to force her to eat something or Wormmon wanted to change her bandaging, she spent the time asleep. (Her leg was healing incredibly fast, because, by some strange stroke of luck, Wormmon's Sticky Thread had healing qualities.) And she got up to shower, as well.

Ken, on the other hand, slept very little. A technical complication had arisen in an area where there was a network of control spires, which took almost two days to sort out. When the problem was finally sorted out, Ken laid down to get some well deserved rest.

But his dreams were anything but peaceful.

Ken found himself in a dark mist. The air was filled with the scent of salt water and a sharp breeze was blowing his hair into his face. Ken ran a hand through his hair in an attempt to dislodge it from his eyes. "My hair is straight, where am I?"

The sound of soft sobbing was carried by the wind to Ken's ears. He turned quickly, seeing a younger version of himself crying by the shore. The black mist pulled away from Ken's person, revealing to him an all too familiar scene.

The Dark Ocean.

"Why do they love Sam more than me?" he heard his younger self choke out. "Sam hates me and Mommy and Daddy too!" Ken saw a mass of what looked like black dirt dancing around in the wind.

"The dark spores!" Ken gasped. The younger Ken took no notice of the older boy's fright. Nor did he notice that the spores were coming ever closer; they were attracted to his sorrow.

In a flash, a spore had burrowed itself into the back of the seven-year-old's neck. Ken subconsciously rubbed the back of his neck when the younger boy yelped and grabbed the back of his.

The mist surrounded him again. He could see nothing. The smell of salt water and the sound of the waves were dying down. A new noise entered his ears.

"Hate him! Hate all of them! What does Sam have that you don't? Why are you living in his shadow like a nobody? That digivice belongs to you! Take it back!" Ken recognized the Kaiser's voice.

"No, you're wrong! They don't hate me! Stop it! You're lying!" Ken smiled out of spite. How was it that his seven-year-old self able to suppress the darkness of the spore and resist the voice?

He knew, of course. But still, as if he needed a reminder, a new scene appeared in front of him; a funeral.

Sam's funeral.

Ken hadn't understood exactly why his brother was laying in a box. "Mommy," Little Ken whispered, tugging at his mother's black dress, "tell Sam to get up now, please?"

Mrs. Ichijoji didn't look her son in the eyes. She couldn't look at him when he looked so much like her dead son. "He isn't asleep, Ken," she hissed in a rather cold voice. "We're at his funeral. You're a smart boy; don't you know what that means?"

Ken had known, but he didn't want to believe it; especially since he had been secretly hoping that something would happen to his brother. Guilt made tears well up in his eyes.

"There, there, Ken. Don't feel bad that you wanted your brother dead. He was a bad brother who took your parents away from you. They should have been looking after you instead of Sam."

"Why are you saying these things?"

"Because I want to help you…"

"Help me? How? I just want this pain to go away."

"I can do that. I can make it so you don't feel any pain. I can help you reach your full potential and fulfill your destiny!"

"But how?"

"Don't block me out anymore. I'm a part of you now, Ken. If you ignore me, it will hurt you. If you let me help you, we can achieve greatness together! People will listen to what you say and you will be ten times what your brother was."

Ken watched as years went by in fast-forward, slowing down every so often so Ken could see the consequences of not listening to the voice. A lost soccer match; a failed test; pain and misery; nothing was right when we wasn't in 'sync with it. And those agonizing headaches.

Ken slowly began to realize that he needed the Kaiser now. "What would you do if I left you on your own Ken?"

Ken turned around and saw the image of him when he was in the Digital World. "Kaiser…"

"That's right, Ken. I thought I needed to remind you of all the things I've done for you. I made you strong and smart and athletic. I understand your pain and keep it from consuming you. Now you see, you need me. What would you do if I was gone?"

Ken fell to his knees as a rush of guilt and agony wrenched at his heart. The pain was unbearable. Years of suppressed emotions attacked him and it burned him. "Make it stop! Please, make it stop!"

The Kaiser laughed at the teen at his feet. "So you do still want me around then?" Ken nodded weakly. "Very well. I trust you'll remember what will happen if I go the next time I tell you to do something."

"Yes," he choked out. "I will, I'll remember. Just make the pain go away." The Kaiser smirked as Ken's image began to fade into the shadows of his own mind.

"I'm back in control…"

(0)

Kari tossed and turned uncomfortably. "I can't take it anymore!" she whispered. She had been lying in bed for two days and needed to get up and move around. She stared longingly at the barred window that didn't let nearly enough light in. "Unless I was delirious, Ken did say I could go where I wanted around the base."

She threw the covers off of herself and let her feet swing over the side of her bed. A shiver ran down her spine when her feet touched the cold stone floor. Grabbing a pair of socks and a hoodie, Kari departed the room.

It was still dark out and Kari had no idea where she was going. After wandering aimlessly for a while, the glow of several idle computers drew her attention. She walked into the control room, careful to avoid making any unnecessary noise.

A smile played at the corners of Hikari's mouth. Lying on a table was her D-terminal. "Why would Ken be so careless as to leave it lying about?" she asked herself. Truthfully, she didn't care. She grabbed her D-terminal before turning and running out of the room. After a few wrong turns, Kari made it back to her room.

(0)

The Kaiser still had a cynical smile on his face when he awoke. Ken's body was shaking from his nightmare, but the Kaiser was completely composed. He got up and dressed quickly. His cape swished behind him when he left his personal chambers.

When he walked into the control room, Ken pushed a button and all of the idle computers came back up. Ken noticed in the surveillance camera that Kari was slipping back into her room. "What is she doing up and about at this hour?" Ken looked in the right-hand corner of one of his computers. It was not quite six in the morning yet. Ken decided to check out what she had been up to.

He took long strides to her chambers until stopping abruptly at her door. After one sharp knock, and without bothering to wait for an answer from Kari, Ken pushed the door open. Kari was leaning against the window sill, looking out past the barred window.

She turned quickly, pulling her hands behind her back. "Uh, hi."

"You're up early," Ken noted, leaning his body against the doorframe and crossing his arms over his chest.

"I did sleep for two days," she said quietly.

"You're feeling better then?"

"Yeah…"

Hmm, she's acting stranger than usual. She's hiding something from me. The Kaiser waited for Ken to respond, but nothing came. "Now what could you be up to?" he asked, moving closer to her.

"Up to?" she asked nervously. "Well, actually, I was kind of hoping that we could maybe go outside?"

"So you can try to run away?" he sneered.

"Where would I run to, Ken?" she snapped. "I am the Digidestined of Light; I do tend to like the sunlight!"

"Don't use that tone with me!" he shouted, grabbing onto her arms. "I gave you too much credit for having some intelligence."

Hikari scowled and forced her arms free. She turned from Ken and brought her hands in front of her. "Where are you going?" he demanded.

"Home."

"You think so?"

"You said I could go wherever I wanted. I want to go home!"

Ken grabbed her and turned her around. She quickly threw her arms behind her again. "You know what I meant," he hissed.

"Obviously not, obviously I'm not as intelligent as you thought."

The Kaiser was getting really pissed off now. She's mocking me! "Let me make myself a little clearer then. You go when I say you go!" Ken noticed that she had been making quite an attempt to keep her hands concealed from him. "What are you hiding?"

"N-nothing…"

Ken grabbed her arm and pulled it in front of her. The D-terminal! How could I have been so idiotic as to leave it sitting out!

Ken grabbed Kari's wrist and wrenched the computer from her hands. "Hey!" she shouted, "that's mine!"

"Not anymore," he answered. Kari struggled to get free from the Kaiser's grip.

He was hurting her.

He could see the fear in her eyes as she fought him.

He liked it.

He pushed her against the wall and grabbed her other wrist. She tried to turn her body to the side so Ken pressed his body against her, pinning her flat against the wall. He raised her arms above her head. "Let go!" she screamed.

The Kaiser still heard nothing from Ken. He smirked, very pleased with how the morning had started. Ken was behaving himself and Kari was well on her way to being broken and defeated.

"Get off of me you goddamn sadistic bastard!"

Ken rearranged his hands so that he was holding both of Kari's wrists with one and brought the other down to place a finger over Kari's lips. "Shhhh" he whispered. "The Digidestined of Light shouldn't say such harsh things. It isn't right."

"Screw you!" she retorted.

"Now, now," he said, in an unusually calm voice, "there will be plenty of time for that later, my pet."

"I'm not your pet!" Kari hissed. "You sick, conniving-"

Ken leaned in close to her, his breaths landing on her cheek. "Enough of that, now. You are my pet, you belong to me now…"

Kari tried to knee Ken. Seeing that she had come dangerously close to inflicting pain onto his groin, his amusement quickly shifted to anger. He let go of her and backed away. Looking as if he was going to walk away, Ken turned slightly, but whipped back around and smacked Kari hard across the face. She landed on the ground with a thud.

The Kaiser looked like he was going to lunge at her, but his body stopped obeying him. That's enough! I'm not going to sit around and let you use my body to beat her! The Kaiser inwardly sighed. He turned and walked out of the room and locked the door behind him. He heard Kari banging on the other side of door shouting for him to unlock it. He didn't comply.

(0)

Kari sat on the bed for a long while just thinking. She sat there, gingerly rubbing the red mark on her face and watching as bruises began to decorate her wrists. She just didn't understand Ken. Maybe she had just imagined a nicer version of Ken; she did have a fever, after all. No, she knew she had witnessed a softer side to him. Maybe Ken had dissociated personality disorder and she had met another of Ken's personalities. No, he wouldn't have gone by the name Ken; she would have been talking to Bob or Larry or Janice.

What was she missing? At that point, Kari would have been content saying he was bipolar and gone about hating him for letting it control him. But she knew that his problem wasn't medical. Sure, Ken was crazy, that much was obvious, but he didn't have just a chemical disorder. She couldn't just hate him when she didn't understand him completely.

Furthermore, she could feel the darkness that clouded his mind. He wasn't completely evil. There was some light in him. It was dim and it was tainted, but she could feel it calling out to her. That damn gift of hers; she could tell that he was veiled in darkness, but her powers weren't developed well enough to be of any actual help.

While Kari sat thinking, there was one thing that didn't make any sense to her. Why exactly did she care? Why did she want to help her worst enemy?

The door creaked open. "Kari, may I come in?" Kari jumped at the sound.

"Oh, Wormmon, you scared me. Come on in."

"I knocked but you must not have heard me. Oh my! What happened?" Wormmon jumped up onto the bed and looked at the red mark on her face. "I can get something for that."

Kari smiled at the little insectoid digimon. He was always so kind to her. "I'm fine, really."

Wormmon's face grew serious. "Did Ken do this?"

Kari looked away from him. "Yeah…" The worm digimon opened his mouth but Kari cut him off. "Please don't start, Wormmon. I know you think that I should feel honored or whatever for being here, but I don't. Ken's so mean to you, why do you stay with him willingly?"

Wormmon's voice was hollow and mournful. "If you knew Ken before everything happened, you would understand. He needs me."

"What happened?"

"I shouldn't say, Ken would be angry."

"Please, Wormmon? I know there's something not right with Ken. Something dark has a hold on him."

Wormmon nodded. "Okay, I'll tell you. When Ken was seven a digivice was sent to him. His brother, Sam, thought that the digivice was meant for him and not Ken, so he took it from him. Ken was never very happy when he was a child, always in his brother's shadow. Someone, I don't know who, tricked Ken into stealing the digivice back. He was sent to the Dark Ocean.

"In the Dark Ocean, he was infected by a dark spore. For a while, he was able to suppress the dark force that had entered his mind. But, after Sam died, Ken's misery intensified and he began hearing a voice. I told him not to listen to it, and he didn't for a while. But soon it became physically painful for him not to listen. I watched as the voice, the Kaiser you now know, took control and pushed Ken back. So you see, it isn't really Ken's fault that he's like this."

"I didn't know that Ken even had a brother, or that he had gone to the Dark Ocean."

"Yes, I've never been there myself, but I've heard terrible things about it." Kari nodded in agreement. "You know, I've noticed that Ken has been fighting for control more and more these days."

"You could have fooled me," she said bitterly, rubbing her cheek.

Wormmon laughed nervously. "Seriously, I've never seen him take so many Advil in his life as he has since you've gotten here."

"So what, he gets headaches?"

"Yes, but more importantly, he gets headaches when he disagrees with the voice."

"Okay, so he disagrees with the Kaiser, that doesn't mean he does anything about it!"

Wormmon sighed. Couldn't Kari see that she was the key to saving Ken?

(0)

I want you to go away for a while. Excuse me? I want to be in complete control of my body…just for a little while. And what about me? You are always planning something, you can do that, you don't need any control to do that. Fine, but if anything goes wrong than I'm taking over!

The Kaiser decided to humor Ken. No doubt he wanted to try to get on Kari's good side without his interference. That was fine with him, he had work to do that he didn't need Ken knowing about.

Ken looked down at his hands. It felt good to be in control of his own body. He didn't need the Kaiser flying off the handle and hurting Kari or Wormmon. He walked down to Kari's room for the second time that day.

"What do you want?" Kari hissed as soon as he opened the door. Ken saw the red mark on her cheek and inwardly cringed. You can do this, just keep calm.

He held the door open. "Are you coming or not?"

"Where?" she inquired, still suspicious of him. She wondered who it was she was talking to.

"You said you wanted to go outside. It'll be sunset soon so it's now or never."

Hikari couldn't help but smile. She could feel the dark presence that surrounded Ken was pushed down. She had a chance to get through to him!

(0)

They sat on a hill for a long time, just watching the sun as it began to set. Hikari, tired of waiting for Ken to give her the answers that she knew he wasn't going to give, decided to take a chance and get some answers for herself. "So… who am I with right now?"

Ken gave her a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, who are you right now?"

"I'm only one person…" Does she know? Ken searched his mind to see if the Kaiser was listening in. Thankfully, the Kaiser was no where to be found.

"I know that there's something or someone in your head. I'm just wondering who it is I'm talking to. The Dark, the Light, or maybe both?"

Did she just call me the Light? Wait, no, that isn't important, how could she know? "You must be confused." Why am I denying it?

"Ken, you've done a complete three-sixty personality switch…again. Besides, I can feel the darkness that is a part of you. It's pushed down further than usual. So can I assume that you're just Ken?"

"Yeah, it's just me. You can feel it?"

"Yep, and it's the reverse of what it's usually like."

Ken sighed. "I'm usually the one who's pushed back," he admitted. I can't tell her these things! Stupid, stupid!

"You just sit around and let the Kaiser do whatever he pleases?"

"No, I try to mediate his actions-"

"You could have fooled me," Kari muttered, feeling her cheek.

"He isn't usually so impulsive. I didn't see that one coming."

"Neither did I" she said. "So if you're the mediator than there must be some agreement in your actions."

Ken didn't like what she was getting at. "Yes, we find a way to agree."

"So trying to take over the Digital World and hurting my friends, you've given the okay for that?" Kari hoped that she was reaching Ken's conscious and making him feel guilty.

I knew this conversation was going the wrong way. He didn't have anything to say, what could he say? "Well, um, it could be worse. It's not like I've actually hurt any of your, uh, friends."

"You've hurt countless digimon, not to mention Wormmon! And you went after Tk."

"I-I don't like Tk."

"Why not!"

"Because, your boyfriend is an ass!"

"First off, Tk isn't my boyfriend. Secondly, you are the biggest ass I know!"

At least she's being honest with me. Hey! She isn't dating Tk! Ken could care less right then that Kari had insulted him. Ken did a little cheer in his head. She isn't dating Tk! "Well," he continued after regaining his composure, "I still don't like him."

Kari scoffed at his remark and silence fell between them. "You may not want it, but I'm going to help you."

"You're right; I don't want your help." I don't deserve it.

"Well, too bad, Ken. You aren't evil and you can't let evil control you!"

"Yes I am," he whispered sullenly. I've let things go this far, I let my hatred consume me. I can't be helped. Ken stood up. "It's getting late; we need to get back to the base.

Kari took the hand that Ken offered her. "I'm not giving up on you," she said as she followed him to the Airdramon.

(0)

Oh wow, this chapter was a toughie! I had a really hard time trying to make a sort of filler chapter and (hopefully) explaining what happened to Ken. And it's my longest chapter yet! If you've never reviewed, or you do review because you rock, please tell me how I did on this chapter, even if I never hear from you again 

Once again…

I'm also starting to plan out another story, after this one is done. Which would you prefer

1) A Yakari that becomes a KenKari: Even though Ken has realized the error of his ways and the digidestined were able to join up to defeat the final enemy, the digidestined never accepted Ken. When Ken transfers to the gang's high school, they don't make things easy for him. Only Kari wants to give him a chance. Overprotective boyfriend (that would be Matt) and brother (Tai, obviously) step in and create problems. Some sort of dark power comes after Kari and…. Well it would end up Ken/Kari but I can't give everything away.

2) A KenKari that becomes a Yakari: Ken and Kari become close because they both share a connection to the darkness. Ken gets pulled back into the dark world and breaks up with Kari. Yada, yada, yada, Matt and Kari get together and Ken, controlled by the darkness, tries to kidnap Kari…Matt must save the day.

Both of these summaries are pretty vague, but I don't want to give it all away. Please review this chapter and add in which idea you like better. Pretty please?

Special thanks to kazetatsu and The Aubrey for your helpful reviews. I hope this chapter was less confusing, and, yes, Yakari is the ultimate coupling!

Jillie062