Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. The chapter titles come from "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" by Po Chu-i.

Chapter 12: Cast a Hundred Spells

Ken awoke on a hard, flat platform in an empty chamber that reeked of rot and blood. It took only a second to realize he couldn't move his arms or legs. A dim light illuminated the room. It came, he determined, from a barred window on a door several meters away. His wrists and ankles were bound with ropes coming through holes at the table's corners. He saw Yolei tied to an identical table next to his. "Are you okay?" he asked her.

"I'm not hurt. What about you?"

"I don't think so."

Yolei tugged at the thick, tight rope. Then she sighed. "Captured twice in two days; this is a personal record."

Ken closed his eyes. "Do you hear that?"

She held her breath and listened. There was a slight whisper of air, a swish. She glanced around trying to determine the source of the sound.

"Oh no," Ken moaned.

She looked at him. "What?"

Ken was looking straight up. Yolei followed his eyes. A large ax-like blade swung from the ceiling.

"It's getting lower with each swing," Ken explained. "Gruesomon isn't a very creative torturer; she stole that from Poe."

"At least she's given us time to come up with an escape plan, or for someone to rescue us."

Ken wriggled his hands, trying to find a way to untie the knots in the ropes or slip out. After a few minutes, he sighed and gave up. "I'm not getting any brilliant ideas." He said sadly. "I'm sorry about this, Yolei."

"How is this your fault?" Yolei asked angrily. "Do you make it some kind of game to blame yourself for everything?" Before Ken could think of an answer, Yolei continued. "If anything, this is my fault. I shouldn't have followed Langmon into that room alone, and if I hadn't pretended to be hurt, Gruesomon might not have been able to sneak up on us."

He looked at her with curiosity, not the anger she would have expected had she thought before she blurted that out. "Why did you pretend to be hurt?"

"I wanted to see how you'd react," she admitted.

"Why?"

She looked away from him. How could she get out of telling him the truth? Well, they were tied up with a long wait before almost certain death, so this seemed as good a time as any to get it out in the open. "Kari told me...Kari said that she thinks you might have a crush on me, and I wanted to know if it was true."

"I see."

The complete lack of inflection in his voice led Yolei to risk a glance at him to see what his reaction was. He was looking toward the ceiling thoughtfully. "So is it true?" she asked.

After all this time, all the plans he'd made to tell here how he felt, could it really be as simple as answering a yes-or-no question? "It's true," he said quietly.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know. I wanted to, but I was afraid I would sound...ungrateful."

"'Ungrateful'?"

"Your friendship," he explained, "is a precious gift, which I've never deserved. How could I dare ask for anything more?"

"How can you believe that? Any girl would be lucky to have you."

"You know why that isn't true," he said quietly. "You know what I am."

"Yes, I do know what you are. You're beautiful. Outside and in. The most beautiful person I've ever met. And I know what you've been; I know what you went through to become who you are today. Ken, look at me." He did. "Have I ever lied to you? Successfully, I mean. You know I'm telling the truth."

His eyes began to glisten. "I wish I could have told you. I tried to, so many times. But I'm glad you know." He looked away. "But the timing could be better."

The blade swung only a meter above them now.

"Ken..." Yolei stretched her hand until her fingers brushed the tips of Ken's. He reached back until their fingertips could curl around each other, as close to holding hands as they could get at the moment. "It's going to be alright," Yolei assured him, but the tears brimming in her eyes betrayed her fear.

As Ken gazed at her, he realized the full extent of Gruesomon's torture: he would have to watch Yolei die, hear her die. He had to find a way out. "Yolei," he said, "when I count to three, I want you to rock as forcefully as you can away from me, and then back toward me, and keep holding my hand."

Under other conditions, Yolei might have asked why, but the pendulum was getting closer and closer, and she was willing to try anything. "Okay."

"One, two, three." They threw their weight away from each other, and then toward each other. The outside legs of the tables lifted into the air. Ken took a firmer hold on Yolei's hand. "Now, try to pull me toward you." As they did, the tables tilted inward. The legs began sliding along the stone floor. The tables tumbled together, squishing Ken and Yolei against each other, before smacking against the stone floor with a jarring force that knocked the tables apart.

Now hanging sideways, Ken and Yolei faced each other across a chasm of about a foot and a half. "Well," Yolei smiled grimly, "at least you managed to delay the inevitable."

"Maybe not: when the pendulum hits the wood, it will start to lose momentum. It will eventually lose too much kinetic energy to break through the tables."

They didn't have to wait long before the pendulum grazed the top of the table, cutting through the wood like warm butter. It swung back and cut a deeper wedge into the tables. The heavy blade pushed the tables a centimeter each time it struck them, even with the weight of the prisoners' tied to them.

"Are you sure this will work?" Yolei asked fearfully.

"To be sure I'd have to know the mass of the pendulum, the strength of the wood, and a few other variables."

"So no then." She looked at him sadly. "I don't want to die."

"I know," he said gently, "and we won't. We'll think of something." He looked at the ropes binding his wrists, trying to find some way out.

"It's no use." She winced as the swinging blade smashed into her table again. "Ken, this might be it."

He sighed. She was right. Everyone's time came eventually; his naïve ignorance of the precariousness of life had been shattered years ago, when Sam died. "If it is, I guess this is my last chance to say thank you."

Yolei looked at him curiously. "For what?"

"For saving me. When you and the others defeated me, you saved my soul. I would have been lost to the darkness, Yolei. I would have become an empty vessel, and it would have happened soon. I owe you everything. I can never express my gratitude for that."

Yolei blinked away tears. "It's alright," she said. She felt pathetic that she couldn't think of anything better to say, now, when she might never get another chance. The pendulum struck the table again. Since she was lighter than him, each pass of the blade pushed her further than him. She was now close enough...she leaned her head forward, and he, responding without thought, did the same. Their lips met in a hard, sorrowing kiss, as desperate and wonderful as a sip of water to someone lost in the desert. Too soon, the pendulum's returning swing tore Yolei away. Her eyes opened and her gaze latched on to Ken. "We'd better survive this," she said.

Ken's eyes caught shadowy movement under the crack of the cell's door. He thought Gruesomon had returned, but then seven mice scurried into the room. Yolei saw them too.

"You saved us," they said, "and now we're going to save you." They set to work gnawing through the ropes binding their hands and feet.

Ken dropped free first. He watched impatiently as the last cords of Yolei's bindings were chewed through as the pendulum swung closer. When she was free, the mice darted into cracks in the wall.

Ken pulled Yolei into his arms. She buried her head in his shoulder. He kissed her hair, then whispered "Come on. We're not free yet."

The door was, as they expected, locked.

"We'll have to wait for Gruesomon to come back," Yolei said with distaste.

"Something tells me we won't have long to wait; she'll want to make sure we're dead."

"What do we do?" Yolei whispered.

Ken looked at the door, then at the still-swinging deadly pendulum, and the toppled wooden tables. It was like a soccer game: the door was the goal, Gruesomon was the goalie, and Yolei was the ball. "You have to promise me you'll run when I tell you to run. Don't worry about me."

"I can't do that," she said.

"Try, please," he implored. "I'll be right behind you."

She nodded unconvincingly.

"Stay by the door." He walked to the fallen tables and rolled them upright, positioned them parallel to the door, fit the bottom edges in the cracks between the floor's stone tiles.

Without warning, the heavy door opened and Gruesomon stepped in, staring at Ken. "You're still alive." She tsked like a disappointed parent scolding a child. "Now I'm really angry." She reached her hand toward him, then whipped it to the side as her fingers turned into ropes and enveloped Yolei. "You have no idea what I'm going to do to you now."

"Please," Ken begged, "don't hurt her. Kill me if you want, but don't hurt her."

Yolei glanced at him. His mannerism was overdramatic, and she realized he had a plan. His eyes met hers briefly, silently encouraging her to play along. She only wished she knew how. "No, Ken," she said. Her voice was similarly histrionic, but it quaked with very real fear. "I couldn't bear it if anything happened to you."

A cruel smile twitched on Gruesomon's lips. "Really? That's too bad. You'll have the privilege of watching him die first." Her other hand stretched toward Ken. At the last possible second, he dodged behind one of the tables. Gruesomon's tentacles followed him and wrapped around his arm. He grabbed the table and tumbled it down on her grotesquely-elongated fingers, pinning them to the floor with his own weight. Gruesomon's eyes widened as the pendulum, momentarily forgotten, swung back and severed her fingers. Her unearthly screech split the air. She dropped Yolei as she brought her other hand to cradle the smoking stubs.

"Run!" Ken yelled.

Gruesomon's eyes blazed and red sparks jumped through her hair. "You will wish you let me kill you!"

Yolei and Ken dove out of the room. Yolei slammed the door closed and pulled the heavy latch into place. Then they sprinted as fast as their legs could carry them, ignoring the lingering soreness and fatigue from their ordeals the previous day. Red flashes lit the corridor behind them. They ran down the stairs and didn't stop running until they were outside the castle gate.