Series: Division of Destiny||Story: Reign of the Undead King||Chapter: The Memories
Characters: Piemon, Vamdemon, Chosen Children, others||Pairings: Ken x Daisuke/Daisuke x Ken, Mimi x Sora/Sora x Mimi
Chapters: 7-40||Words: 2,778||Total: 18,766
Genre: Romance, Drama||Rated: PG-13
Summary: Vamdemon and Piemon rule supreme. Only now, ten years after their victory, are things about to change. For good or for ill.
Dozens of voices rose in a cacophony of protest, agreement, rage, and fascination, none of them able to be discerned from the other. Osamu rubbed one hand over his face, trying to keep his headache down and not having much success in doing so.
"Be quiet!" Ken finally snapped, his violet eyes blazing with unaccustomed fire. Osamu couldn't help the flinch; his brother stood right next to him and he had the full force of Ken's shout. Ken very seldom raised his voice at all, and dead silence fell now when he did.
He also didn't wait for anyone else to say anything. "Osamu told us what his contact wants: we're going to make contact with a Digimon who is on our side, not theirs. We are supposed to trust this Digimon and work with him to accomplish our goal of destroying Vamdemon and taking back our world." He looked all around at the gathered rebels; Osamu wondered if it had been such a good idea to let them all know about this.
Too late to change it now. This did put them at risk; he thought there weren't any traitors in their midst, but one could never be too careful. He couldn't think of too many actions they could take that didn't put them at risk for traitors, with the way Vamdemon and his vampires could control minds. They just had to do the best they could.
He returned his attention to the meeting in time to see Ken's arms folded over his chest. "When we go to meet this Digimon, there will only be a small, select group. He won't come here. He won't even be told where this place is." There wasn't any room for argument in his tone, and Osamu held back a soft smile at his brother's determination.
"So who gets to go?" Someone, Osamu couldn't place their name right away, called out from the depths of the crowd.
He wasn't surprised when Ken had an answer right away. "I will. So will Osamu, Miyako, Daisuke, Iori, and Jun." His attention turned to two of the older people there. "Shuu, Shin, would you keep an eye on matters here while we're doing this?"
"Of course." Kido Shuu nodded, as did his older brother. Osamu wasn't surprised at the selection, either. The six of them worked together more than many other groups did, and there were some who wondered if they could read one another's minds, especially where Ken and Daisuke were concerned. Osamu doubted that; they just happened to get along very well.
"So, where exactly are we going to meet him at?" Iori asked, a hint of concern in his serious green eyes. Osamu at times wondered about this child; at sixteen he was one of the youngest in the entire resistance, and yet he'd seen the boy on the practice field. If he struck a Digimon full on with blade or kendo stick, then that Digimon would feel it. He couldn't be sure if it would be enough to actually destroy the creature, as none of them had yet managed to do so, but he hoped they would find out soon enough. This resistance was still in the beginning stages.
Ken looked through some of the information in front of him. "There are three places that are being considered. One of them is the old elementary school in Odaiba."
"That's not very safe. There isn't much left of it and it could fall apart if someone gave a good sneeze," Miyako pointed out, checking her own notes.
Ken nodded, flipping through pages. "What about the gardens? So far as we know, Vamdemon's forces don't even know where those are."
Osamu held back a hint of a smirk there; he'd been busy diverting fertilizer and seeds from Vamdemon's enslaved farmers to make certain they could create farms of their own so they no longer had to depend on stealing food from their enemies. There were too many chances their thefts could be found out and they could either be tracked or poisoned. Being self-sufficient gave them a better chance to do something.
"Then he wouldn't know how to get there," Iori reminded them. "And it wouldn't be smart to let him know."
Every reason to keep away from Digimon altogether surged back into everyone's head at that. Finding one of them who could be trusted was all but impossible. Rumor had it that there had been some, those partnered to the Chosen Children, but no one had seen them for years. No one even knew if it were actually true or not.
Ken thumbed through the information again and stopped one more time. "What about the old Fuji TV building? It's kind of battered, but it's not ready to fall down just yet and there are plenty of places that we could hide if we needed to." Which also meant there were places for Digimon to hide if they needed to, but they would still have a better chance of getting out of there safely.
Soft murmurs of consideration and thought whispered among those who had the most interest in where they were going. Finally Jun said it. "I think that's got the best chance."
"Sounds like a good idea to me." Daisuke agreed with his sister, and Osamu added his own nod of approval.
Once everyone threw in agreement, Ken rose to his feet. "Osamu, let your contact know what we've decided on, and if it's agreeable to this Digimon. Then we can start pinning down when to do this."
Daisuke carefully set out each of his new bolts, checking over the sharpness of the heads. He wanted to go out again tonight and try his best to find one of Vamdemon's slaves. Any chance of killing one of the enemy needed to be taken in his opinion.
"Think you're going somewhere?" Ken's voice rang from the door. Daisuke didn't look up but picked up another bolt and examined the edge.
"I know I am. It's been three days already." He'd been stuck inside all of those three days, on the excuse that his scent could've lingered in the area and a vampire could track him from that alone. "It rained last night. Huge thunderstorm. No scent left."
"I know." Ken didn't move from where he stood, and Daisuke could feel those violet eyes scorching into his back. "You're still not going."
"Why not?" Daisuke's voice grated with inactivity and annoyance. Shooting bolts at stuffed targets didn't do anything for him at all. "What's wrong with going out and trying to do something?"
Ken stepped into the room and set one hand on Daisuke's tense shoulder. "Because you're not just trying to do something."
Daisuke ground his teeth before he turned to look at his friend. He wanted to shout. He wanted to scream. He wanted to say anything to deny him, but the way Ken's finger traced across two long healed puncture wounds on his throat stopped the words in their tracks.
"You still want to find Vamdemon. Not one of his pack. You want him."
Memories Daisuke fought to keep at bay flickered and whispered through the back of his mind, of a day years before…
It was a pen, nothing more, nothing less. Ghost-like creatures carrying scythes floated all around, keeping their attention on the people held there. Daisuke tried to avoid being seen, which wasn't that easy, since everyone was trying to do the same thing.
Movement, from somewhere outside of the pen. Daisuke tensed, nails digging into his palms, as the guards (he didn't know what they were called and he didn't care, they were scary, that was what he knew and cared about) shifted closer. One of them was close enough to where Daisuke curled up for the ten year old to hear it speak.
"How can we serve you, master?"
Daisuke stifled a squeak. That word could only mean one being was there. He hadn't heard Vamdemon's voice very often, but he recognized it anyway.
"I'm too busy to hunt tonight. Bring me someone. Preferably someone who can put up a little bit of a fight." That voice sent chills all through Daisuke and he swallowed harshly. He hoped they would find someone else…someone who wasn't him. Anyone who wasn't him. There were so many people here who weren't him…
Arms enfolded him from above and he started kicking and squirming right away. "Will he be suitable, Vamdemon-sama?" The Digimon who held him asked, keeping a tight grip on him. Even as he asked, Daisuke found himself carried over the heads of the others, and he could see relief in their eyes, that he was the one who was chosen, and not them.
Anything he might've thought about that vanished out of his mind a moment later as he was dropped in front of the vampire overlord. A firm hand gripped his hair and yanked his head back, revealing a pair of blue eyes staring thoughtfully at him.
"I think he'll do." Vamdemon declared, scooping Daisuke into his arms. As much as Daisuke tried, he couldn't break that grip. He wasn't sure if he could have even if he'd not been ten years old and not very well fed for the last two of those years.
What he did know was that Vamdemon carried him away as if he were nothing more than a package he'd picked up from somewhere, paying no attention to Daisuke's screams and struggles and insistence on being put down.
Daisuke drew in a sharp breath and pulled away from Ken, staring back down at the bolts in front of him. Taking out Yagami Taichi would indeed be a coup for the resistance, and a great first strike, but taking out Vamdemon himself…that was something more personal. That was something he'd dreamed of since the moment Vamdemon's Phantomon carried him over to the vampire, and dedicated himself to from the moment he'd felt Vamdemon's fangs biting into him.
"I'm going out." Daisuke wasn't going to give ground on this one. Even if he never actually saw a vampire, he just needed to get out of there. Being outside reminded him that he didn't live in a pen anymore, or worse, in that small, far too lushly decorated room next to Vamdemon's. "I'll be back before midnight."
Whatever else Ken might've wanted to say, he didn't. The two of them understood each other, even when they disagreed. Ken had his own demons haunting him, ones that didn't need outward scars to remind him of them. Just looking at Osamu could make it happen. Daisuke himself wasn't entirely certain of why, but it did happen, and maybe one day when all of this ended, Ken would trust him enough to tell him.
Daisuke slipped the rest of his bolts into the carrying case and fastened it into the holder on his back. Ken still said nothing, simply standing there next to him.
"Be careful." That was all he said when he finally broke the silence. "Remember what I've told you."
Daisuke rolled his eyes. "Just take one shot, and make certain it's the only one that you need. I know, Ken, I know."
Ken's fingers brushed ever so lightly against Daisuke's cheek, and the redhead turned to look at him. A familiar silence fell between them, one that stretched onward until it reached an awkward state that Daisuke couldn't stand.
"See you when I get back." He snatched up the goggles, wormed his way around Ken and headed down the hall, telling himself that the way his heart beat so much faster was because of how he anticipated finding one of the vampires, not because of the way Ken stared at him.
Ken followed Daisuke with his eyes until the other was out of sight completely. He resisted the urge to follow him on the security monitors after that, choosing instead to head to the training area. With this upcoming meeting between the resistance and the Digimon their contact wanted them to know, he needed to be in top shape.
So did all of the others, which was why he hadn't argued very strongly about Daisuke going out. He knew full well how much Daisuke needed fresh air and freedom around himself, and now that he had the crossbow and the night-vision goggles, he was that much safer going out.
That didn't mean Ken didn't worry about him, perhaps just a little more so than everyone else when their missions took them outside of their hidden headquarters.
No one knew exactly how long Daisuke had spent as Vamdemon's personal blood supplier, not even Daisuke. Time didn't mean a whole lot when you spent all of it locked up in a small room. Ken knew that Daisuke had been provided with books of every kind and subject, but no freedom to go outside, unescorted, the way that he really wanted to. Vamdemon wanted him in the peak of condition, so he'd walked him. On a leash.
Ken would never forget seeing that for the first time, nor the surge of rage through his veins. Before, all of his anger at the monster that destroyed their world had been cold, icy, calculated. Seeing Vamdemon walking Daisuke inflamed his blood as nothing ever had. That wasn't right. It could never be right.
He and Osamu liked to sneak out and explore whenever they could. It was dangerous and they both knew it, but after they'd come so close to losing each other years earlier, they wanted to spend as much time together as they could. If that meant risking their lives, then so be it. At least they would go together, if it happened.
Now, creeping through the shattered city, underneath the gray mantle of clouds that never lifted, they looked for anyone who was human and who hadn't bent their knee to the monsters that invaded their world.
There were far more of those than Ken liked, but there wasn't anything he knew that he could do. Finding the ones who hadn't mattered more. Deep in his soul he dreamed of founding a group that could fight back and end all of this. He didn't know how, he didn't know when, but the idea of doing so burned bright.
Osamu's hand closed on his wrist and Ken froze where he was, all fantasies vanishing as he refocused on what was going on in front of him. They stood in the shadow of a building and Osamu's urgings pulled them back just a little more. Ken frowned, before he caught sight of movement ahead of them.
It was him. Vamdemon. The twisted monster himself, and he had…he had a human with him? A boy who looked around Ken's own age, but smaller, less well-fed. He wore dark clothes of a better make than Ken remembered seeing in a couple of years, and around his neck…
Around his neck was a collar, with a leash going from it to Vamdemon's hand.
Ken forgot everything he'd ever known about cool, quiet logic. A human on a leash, being walked like a pet. He didn't even know he'd started out until Osamu's hand tightened on his wrist and he stopped.
"That's wrong. We have to get him away from there." Ken whispered the words into his brother's ear and Osamu nodded, understanding in the motion.
"We can't right now. Vamdemon is too strong for us. But we'll do it."
Ken believed in his big brother, no matter what. He looked back at the boy being walked, and whispered under his breath. "We'll come get you."
Ken prepared himself for a sparring session; Iori stood not that far away, as calm and collected as he himself was, and ready to do battle. Ken pushed all thoughts of the past out of his mind; he had to focus on the now, for multiple reasons. They'd saved Daisuke, though he'd certainly put in enough of his own efforts to saving himself. Now they were making the first real steps towards defeating Vamdemon. It would be done.
"Do you trust this contact of your brother's?" Iori asked as their sparring sticks clashed against one another.
"I'm going to have to, for this to work out." Ken reminded him. They would all have to. What other course did they have? Getting spies into Vamdemon's castle would be hard enough on their own. Adding in what they would have to do to get some into Piemon's, if they could even find a way to cross the gateway, would be worse. Sooner or later, they would have to trust Digimon. It had to start somewhere.
To Be Continued
Note: I'm still not certain if Ken & Daisuke will end up a pairing, but I won't rule it out, either. Also, Fuji TV is where Wizarmon died in the actual anime.