3.
"Let me talk to him."
Hikari's voice is patient. She isn't anywhere close to disturbed or upset and Takeru wants to imagine she's been possessed again. That would be easier than believing she's lost her mind and wants to be nice to the Kaiser. Not that Takeru had hoped the kid would stay behind and die. That… that would never, in any way, shape, or form, be okay.
But it still isn't okay to see him sitting on Taichi's couch, puzzled and young and obviously, rather intimidated. Wormmon seems somewhere in shock and wariness and has settled for clinging to Ken's grey-clothed not to be when Miyako starts shouting at you like you kicked her Poromon. This is the Digimon Kaiser, he who tortured an unknown amount of Digimon and laughed.
Taichi is thinking it over, and Takeru wonders why he isn't just shouting no, because she could get hurt. He takes a deep breath, then another. He almost chokes when Taichi says "okay."
"Why?" Yamato doesn't sound accusing and it's probably the only reason Iori hasn't jumped in. Iori-kun, of all people. But Iori-kun is a person about justice. This doesn't feel right. Can you extract justice on someone who may not know what they did?
The problem is that Ken probably has no idea about right or wrong right now.
Hikari ignores Yamato, steps clipped, and goes back into the other room. Takeru watches through the doorway as she sits down. He wonders what she sees. The look on Ken's face is frightened but guileless. He keeps reaching for his neck, and when she asks to see, he moves like these limbs aren't comfortable for him, as though they're too big. Her face doesn't change the whole time, not from the smile.
They are speaking too quietly to be heard and he wants to know what they're saying. But he's scared. With Ken like this, how are they going to know what happened to Patamon?
Yamato's hand is gentle on his shoulder and he looks at the solemn expression on his brother's face. Takeru manages a smile. "I'll be okay."
"When we get Patamon back," his brother says, and his chest hurts because it's true.