Author's Note: If you really feel the need to read what I've written before starting every chapter, then click on the back button, read the previous author's note, return to this page and pretend you read it here. J

I wanted to put a chapter between this one and the last one, but it would have either been pointless, stupid, boring filler crap, or it would have taken the fic in an entirely new direction. There should be something in between so I apologize for my lack of creativity.

Shattered

Chapter Six: Another Failed Rescue Attempt

An involuntary shiver ran through his spine. Water dripped down from his hair as he paced back and forth in his room. He had just taken his third cold shower since the night before.

Don't you want to go see her? She won't want to speak to me after what you did. That's too bad for her, we're going.

Ken's head began throbbing as he tried to resist leaving the room. Finally, he gave in and headed down to see Kari. Wormmon found him on the way. "I don't think that you should go see Hikari yet," he warned.

That's surprising, the Kaiser thought dryly.

Ken nervously knocked on the door. When no answer came, he opened it. Kari jerked her head up, meeting his eyes. Ken was the first to look away. Deciding that this was a bad idea, Ken turned to leave.

"Ken, wait." Ken turned back to face Kari. "I, um, thank you, Ken. For stopping the Kaiser." Kari's eyes still pierced through him.

"How do you know it wasn't the other way around?" he growled.

"Your eyes," she explained, unfazed by his remark. "Is that why you always wear sunglasses?"

The Kaiser said nothing. He chose this outfit because it was fitting for a digimon emperor. It had nothing to do with Ken or his eyes. He turned again and left the room. Both the Kaiser and Ken felt foolish for going down there.

Kari sighed deeply. She hadn't been ready to face him. Wormmon stepped in with a cup of herbal tea. "How are you doing?" he asked in a concerned tone.

"I've been better," she admitted, petting his head in thanks for the tea. Setting it down to cool, Hikari wandered over to the window. She wondered how Tai and the others were doing, hoping that they were alright.

She missed her brother and parents greatly. And Gatomon. Gatomon had undoubtedly attached herself to either Tai or Tk, but Kari doubted that she spoke to them much. How could this have happened? How could things get so screwed up? Saving the world was dangerous, but she had never been warned about being kidnapped and held hostage. Eleventh grade would start in little over a month. She wouldn't still be a captive at the base when it started, would she?

(0)

"Is everyone here?" the redheaded computer genius asked.

"Yeah, we're all accounted for," Matt responded.

"Except for my sister," Tai mumbled.

Izzy shot Tai an aggravated glare. "After yesterday's, uh, fiasco, I got to thinking. We went about things all wrong. We jumped into the Digiworld without having any idea where Kari was, we wandered around aimlessly, and we got our asses handed to us."

"What else can we do? It's not like we can locate Kari with the D3 or anything," Tk added sadly.

"That's what I called everyone here for. We're going back to get Kari, but this time we're going to do it right. I e-mailed Gennai to see if he could help at all, and he had an interesting theory." Izzy inhaled deeply after speaking so quickly as to not be interrupted.

"Gennai? Did he give you another cryptic clue that does absolutely nothing to help us?" Tk spat out.

"No, actually, he gave me a straightforward answer. He believes that because of the connection that Light shares with the other crests, we should be able to combine our powers and sort of 'detect' where Kari is in the Digital World."

"Powers?" Yolie asked. "Since when does anyone have powers?"

"I thought that Kari was the only one with any powers," Tai thought aloud.

"What powers!" Yolie shouted.

"Hikari has special Light powers that were granted to her because of her crest. I really don't know any specifics because special precautions have been taken to keep her powers suppressed. According to Gennai, the stronger Kari's power becomes, the more likely it is that she will be targeted by the darkness" Izzy explained. "It's better to keep them underdeveloped and her safe, then to have her learn to use them and be in constant danger."

"When we first went to the Digital World, Kari got sick and we went into a town to find medicine. We got separated by Machindramon and landed in the sewers. When Kari was well enough to walk, we tried to find a way out, but instead we found captured Numemons working for WaruMonzemon. Kari used her powers to free them." Tk tried to explain what had happened to the digidestined that weren't there at the time.

"And she gave Biyomon and me the power to digivolve," Patamon added.

"Okay, so Kari has some freakishly awesome powers, what about the rest of us?" Davis asked.

"We don't have any," Tai answered.

"I didn't think we did either. But you see, our crests are based on our Light Attributes-"

"What are those, Izzy?" Cody questioned.

"Light Attributes are our positive attributes that give us the ability to evoke the power of the crests. My Light Attribute is knowledge, Tai's is courage, and Matt's is friendship, and so on. We kind of unconsciously borrowed Kari's power every time we used our crests. If we didn't have the connection to Kari, our crests would be corrupted by the darkness and convert to anti-crests. I would draw my power from ignorance, Tai from cowardice, and Matt from evasion. So we don't really have our own power, just the capability to use Kari's."

"What does that matter? The crests were destroyed, remember? So now we have no way to borrow her powers" Tai noted.

"Well, we may not have crests, but we still have the connection to Kari through our attributes. The strongest being Hope, obviously."

Davis scowled. "Humph. Why does Tp get to have the strongest connection to Kari? I have two crest attributes, or whatever they are."

"Hope is the closet to Light in purity and innocence. It is an attribute that all holy creatures have. That and Light and Kindness… Apparently, there was a crest of kindness that was never distributed to a chosen. Whoever that is will have the same spiritual connection to Kari as Tk, if there even is someone to whom it belongs." Izzy had the same curious look he had when he wanted to know something badly.

"Since when has there been a crest of kindness? Is there an armor digiegg of kindness?" Cody asked.

"No, the digieggs were created when our crests were destroyed and us original eight had to create our own temporary crests to defeat Apocolamon. We borrowed Kari's power, then, though we didn't realize it at the time. The armor digieggs manifested from the energy we created to make the crests. Since no one had to make a temporary crest of kindness, no armor digiegg was created."

"How do you know all this Izzy? And what does it have to do with us locating Kari in the Digital World?" Tai sighed in frustration. Things weren't supposed be so complicated, they were supposed to be easy and quick. This entire ordeal should have been over by now.

"Gennai and I discussed all of this last night. Right, so it's important because I think that Tk has a strong enough spiritual connection to Kari that, if we all focus our energy, he can leave his body and go to where she is."

"An out of body experience, how cool! Does it have to be Tk?" asked Yolie.

"I think so. It's more likely to work. Now remember, this is only a theory I had, I don't know if it'll work for sure-"

"Yeah, yeah, let's get started already. What do we do?" Tai stood up and stretched his arms above his head. He was ready; no matter what it took he was going to get his sister back.

"How will I know what to do?" Tk asked.

"You will be drawn to her. Everyone sit down in a circle. Tk, you go right there." Izzy set everyone up before opening up a computer program that Gennai had sent him. Then he too took a seat. "Okay, we need to focus our spiritual energy on Kari. Close your eyes and think of shooting your abilities into Tk."

The room was quiet as everyone skeptically tried to focus their minds. The computer program amplified their energies as soon as they were manifested and shot them into Tk. The whole room was filled with a pulsating glow and a light was being emitted off Tk's skin.

Tk felt himself leaving his body and going through the gate. He was standing in the Digital World. A force of energy pulled Tk's body forward. Everything was blurred because he moved so fast. Finally, he was standing inside the base. Tk could see the outline of a person glowing in a soothing pink light. It had to be Hikari.

Tk was pulled back as quickly as he was drawn in. He was thrown back into his body, falling sideways onto Tai. "Izzy, you're a genius!" he cried when his body and spirit were realigned.

"It worked?" Izzy asked.

Tk nodded. "The base is inside a mountain, just past a forest. There are no distinctive features that would make it recognizable, that's why we never found it before." Tk held up his D3. "Let's go."

"Wait! Did you have a temporary lapse of auditory cognition capabilities?" Tk stared at the genius blankly. Izzy sighed. "Were you not listening to me before, when I said that we were going to do things right this time?"

"We have a location, what else do we need?" Tai piped up.

"We need a plan. Luckily, I have a plan. We need a distraction to lure Ken and as many controlled digimon away as possible. The rest of us will sneak into the base, get Kari, and high-tail it out of there. Tk, Tai, and Matt are going to be our decoys."

"What? Why me?" Tk huffed, wanting to rescue Kari personally.

"Because you and Tai are the most likely to charge blindly into the Digital World and Matt is the most likely one to try to keep you from doing something too stupid. Now Tk, open the gate so that you three can arrive in the Digiworld in the forest in front of the base. I'll set it up so the rest of us make it through behind the base as soon as you distract him. Everyone understand?"

There was a general nod towards the redhead. "Digiport Open!" Tk shouted.

(0)

We need to talk. So talk… Not here, in person. Ken was confused at how he was supposed to meet someone in his head; aside from when he was dreaming, it was impossible for him to actually see the Kaiser. It became clear, however, when Ken was brought into his mind, leaving his body to fall on the floor in the control room.

"What's this all about?" Ken asked, looking around him. He was standing in darkness, the darkness that clouded his mind.

The Kaiser appeared in front of Ken. He had his normal, digital appearance, but Ken was in the old school uniform. "Hikari is making you weak. WE have a goal, remember? Taking over the Digital World, living somewhere where everyone listens to you and appreciates you, not the Sam impersonation that you play out in the Real World."

"None of that is worth it anymore. I don't want to take over the Digital World; I'm starting to doubt that I ever did. Maybe it was you the whole time. I don't care about this stupid game world. Being in control of digimon has nothing to do with reality."

"You are so naïve, believing only what you want to believe. This world isn't just a computer game. It's a parallel world to your own."

Ken shook his head. "I would never have allowed this if it were real. If it were real then we inflicted real pain onto those creatures. I wouldn't enslave real creatures, and I won't let you enslave Kari! I, I'm going to send her home."

"No, you aren't."

"Why would you possibly care? What does she mean to you? We can send her back with another virus, like we did with Tk, and you can go back to trying to master this game."

"Tell me something, Ken, if this world isn't real than why does it still hurt you to fight me? Why did Kari get sick? If this place wasn't real than you 'real people' wouldn't feel anything here."

"…" Ken lowered his head. The Kaiser had to be lying. Ken was smart enough to know if this place were real, wasn't he? With the Kaiser clouding up his mind, he wasn't sure if he would have been able to figure it out. Had he really been mercilessly hurting the innocent digimon?

The Kaiser sneered at Ken. He had been manipulated well up until now; the connection to the darkness that the dark spore had created had brought out his anti-crest power of cruelty, but being around Kari was purifying it and turning it back to the Attribute of kindness. Ken didn't even understand his connection to Kari, the underlying connection that they shared. "I don't want to conquer the Digital World right now, Ken. I'd much rather conquer Hikari."

Ken's head snapped up. "What!"

"You heard me," the Kaiser growled.

"I won't let you!"

"How do you plan on stopping me? You don't have the strength or the will to fight me."

"It's still my body!"

The Kaiser tapped on the side of his forehead with his gloved fingers.

"Screw the damn headaches! I don't care if I get them! I don't care what happens to me as long as I stop you!"

Heaving a heavy sigh, the Kaiser looked away. "Do you know what your problem is? You don't have the balls to go after what you want. If it weren't for me, you'd be a miserable, lonely, normal, friendless jerk. You need me because you can't handle all that guilt you have for wanting your brother out of the way. You need me to help you fulfill your destiny!"

"You're wrong. I don't need you and I don't want this destiny. You and it can go straight to Hell!" Ken shouted.

"The girl is making you think this way. Feelings make you weak. Do you actually believe that she'll forgive you for what you've put her through? Once she's back with her friends, she won't care if you're alive or dead."

"You're wrong…she wants to help me."

"She only said that to confuse you. She's toying with you. Your feelings for her are pointless."

"And what about yours!"

"The feelings I have for Hikari are from being forced to share your body. I always feel what you feel, often times I feel things instead of you. Guilt, misery, pain, I take all the in and keep it from you. My feelings for Kari will go away, right after I put you in your place!"

The Kaiser pushed Ken backwards. Ken found himself falling further and further into the darkness, being locked inside the confines of his own mind. Suddenly, he could feel the Kaiser's emotions and hear all of his thoughts. Never before could he access all the Kaiser's thoughts, though he had always been able to read Ken's.

"You are no longer needed" came the haunting echo of the Kaiser's fading voice. "I won't let your weak human heart interfere with my plans…" The Kaiser's laugh was heard from a distance.

Ken panicked. The Kaiser was going to have complete control over his body. There was no more mediation or resistance. He had lost to the Kaiser at last. He was pushed back into the darkest corners of his mind.

(0)

The Kaiser opened his eyes. He had complete control over Ken's body. My body. A smug grin rested comfortably on his face.

Wormmon came running in. "You're awake! I was so, worried Ken, I couldn't get you to wake up and-"

The Kaiser grabbed the insectoid digimon by his ears. "Always call me master!" he hissed, ready to drop kick the green worm clear across the room. A red flashing light and the sound of an alarm distracted him, however.

"What the…" the Kaiser questioned, dropping Wormmon to the ground. The alarm I set up to go off whenever anyone passed through the gates! The self-proclaimed emperor ran to his computers, flipping through surveillance sectors until he found what he was looking for.

Tai, Matt, and Tk were walking through the forest near the front of the base. Their digimon were walking by their partners, or, in Patamon's case, sitting on Tk's head.

"Only three? Something isn't right. They aren't trying to trick me, are they? Wormmon, where is Kari?"

"She's in the daycare with the baby digimon. Should I get her?" he asked nervously. He didn't know exactly what had happened the last time the digidestined had come through the gate, but it hadn't turned out well.

"No, if she asks where I am, make something up. I'm going to take care of these annoying bastards myself."

"Oh boy…" Wormmon whispered.

(0)

Matt looked over at Tk. He was absentmindedly staring at the scenery, not really taking any of it in. Tai had a determined look on his face, ready for anything.

"Well, well, three intruders. What should I do with them?" The Kaiser appeared, on top of his Airdramon.

"How 'bout you hand my sister over!" Tai screamed. "Agumon!"

"Agumon digivolve to… Greymon!"

"Gabumon digivolve to… Garurumon!"

"Patamon digivolve to… Angemon!"

The three digimon faced off with three Airdramon. The Kaiser had jumped down to allow his slave to wreak as much havoc as possible. A blinking red light went off on Ken's D3. "Your friends are here, now."

Tai looked over at Matt with concern. The distraction attack was obviously not going to work if Ken knew about it. "You just worry about facing us," he warned.

"But of course," the Kaiser confirmed.

"Spinning Needle!" one Airdramon shouted, aiming his attack at the three adolescents. They barely dodged the attack, and landed heavily on the ground.

Garurumon ran up to them and lowered his stomach onto the ground. "I'm going to get you out of harm's way," he explained. Tai, Matt, and Tk climbed onto Garurumon's back.

Tai watched helplessly as Greymon took a heavy blow from two Airdramon. He dedigivolved back to Agumon. A dark ring rushed upon him and closed around his neck. "Agumon!" Tai screamed.

The Airdramon picked Agumon up by the tail with his teeth. He flew back towards the base. The remaining joined together and took Angemon down. A dark spiral latched itself onto Patamon's abdomen. "Patamon!" Tk shouted as his partner was carried away.

Garurumon took off towards the others. He could get back to the TV his partner had come through without running into the remaining Airdramon, so he was going to find the one that the others had used.

A Weremon jumped out from the bushes as the Kaiser stepped onto the Airdramon's back. The Weremon, essentially a Garurumon, but with black fur and white stripes, and a slight bit smaller, chased after Garurumon and the Chosen three. "Howling Despair!" it called out, just missing Garurumon. He continued running, right past the mountain that was really the base, and to where the others could be seen. "Howling Despair!"

This time, the attack hit his hind legs. Tk went flying off, only to be caught by a Parrotmon. The green bird dug his claws into Tk's shoulders as he hung onto him in the air. Tai and Matt went crashing down to the ground as Garurumon changed back to Gabumon.

The remainder of the digidestined saw Matt and Tai go down. A Gisamon grabbed Tai by his ankles and began dragging him away. The rocks scraped against Tai's back, cutting open his skin. Gatomon jumped onto of the Gisamon, forcing the creature to release Tai.

"Veemon armor digivolve to…Flamedramon, the fire of Courage"

"Hawkmon armor digivolve to…Halsemon, the wings of Love"

"Armadillomon armor digivolve to…Digmon, the Drill of Knowledge"

"Biyomon digivolve to…Birdramon"

"Tentomon digivolve to…Kabuterimon"

"Gomamon digivolve to…Ikakumon"

The fighting became more intense as the controlled digimon began aiming for the digidestined. Halsemon swooped down and Sora and Yolie climbed onto his back. "Howling Despair!" The attack from the ultimate digimon hit Halsemon's underbelly, causing him to dedigivolve. Yolie and Sora fell from twenty feet up. Hawkmon was caught by the Weremon, his teeth unceremoniously cutting into his flesh. A dark ring attached itself to the bird's left wing. He was taken away in the clutches of a Flymon.

Matt weakly crawled to where his dog friend was lying unconscious. A Tyranomon swatted Matt back with his massive tail. Matt landed against a tree, only able to see a dark ring close on Gabumon's paw through blurred vision.

Tk was dropped to the ground, the Parrotmon clawed at the chosen protector of hope. His talons ripped apart Tk's shirt and tore into his stomach. Gatomon, after effectively fighting off the Gisamon, lunged at the Parrotmon's throat. He grabbed the feline with his long beak and applied increasing pressure until she couldn't breathe. A spiral slid onto her tail, where the tail ring would rightfully be.

Joe had run over to Yolie and Sora. Yolie's arm was twisted into an unnatural position, and neither protector of love would awaken. Ikakumon shielded Joe from a swarm of Gisamon, howling painfully as the creatures bit his entire body. Gomamon found himself at the bottom of a pile of digimon. Joe tried to help his friend, but was tripped and twisted his ankle. He watched from the ground as a dark ring took control of his partner.

Digmon and Kabuterimon were fighting desperately to protect Izzy and Cody from Weremon. He kept trying to swipe at them with his claw, only to be pushed back by one of the two digimon. Finally, Weremon just attacked Digmon and Kabuterimon. Birdramon swooped in, only to be downed by Parrotmon. All three dedigivloved and were given new jewelry. Izzy and Cody ran away, narrowly avoiding a stream of black energy from Weremon. It instead hit a tree, causing it to fall over. The tree landed on top of the two boys.

Davis looked around nervously. He and Flamdramon were the only ones left. An explosion behind him caused Davis to fall. Parrotmon dove in, only to meet Flamdramon's 'Fire Rocket'. "Thanks," Davis called to his friend.

Flamdramon prepared to respond, but was hit from behind by a 'Howling Despair'. The attack hit Davis as well, and he saw a dark ring choking Veemon before passing out.

The Kaiser looked around contently. He would have never been able to do this had he not locked Ken away in his own mind. All of the digimon were carried away to be used as experiments, or target practice, the Kaiser hadn't decided yet.

The digidestined were all out cold, badly injured, and several were probably on the verge of dieing. The Kaiser had some of the controlled digimon carelessly bring the chosen teens to the dungeons, where they could await their demise.

(0)

The chapter is done! It's a tad bit longer than the last one, which was the longest. I would love to hear from you. I was told that my story kicks butt, that made me smile I got a review in Italian, that was exciting. Reviews are lovely ways to spread the love, so do it! I hope I'm not disappointing anyone.

Honestly, I never had any intention of involving Kari's powers in here. I needed a way for them digidestined to find her, and (hopefully) explain how Ken is connected to Kari. (It's part of the reason he likes her) Now we are going to see just how evil the Kaiser is.

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.

Current votes: 3

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.

Current Votes: 3

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?

Adventures of the Tainted is not the story for either option one or two. It's an idea that I had that I can hopefully straighten out in my head and write up properly. It's an adventure story with all the 01&02 digidestined but focuses on Kari. Check it out!

!(-)! I need a few more reviews before chapter 2 goes up!

Also, check out my profile for info on my current and future fics!

Jillie062