A dark shaped loomed over him when he opened his eyes. It spoke.
"Ryo?" he heard.
Ryo recognized Ken's voice, Ken's rejoicing when all his hard work had paid off, when one of the Digimon that helped him was alright. He blinked, tried to focus tired eyes, and the haze that he'd mistaken for a dark crystal was replaced by someone who looked like Ken. Except he looked a couple of years older than Ryo, instead of younger.
He grinned brightly and Ryo found arms wrapped around him. "I knew you weren't dead," the… they said with something close to Ken's voice. "Thank goodness it was only the future, what if he had you imprisoned in another dimension all this time..." He squeezed Ryo, then pulled back. Ryo let him pull him into a sitting position. When Ryo didn't respond, he frowned. "He didn't… tell me you're okay, Ryo."
"I'm… fine," he said, staring. "…the future?"
"It's 2004. After they sent you to die, the Four Holy Beasts tampered with everyone else's memories – Gennai said they'd forget about me, and I knew you weren't dead, I just knew it."
"The Four Holy Beasts?"
"They're sealed away again," he was reassured. "The Digital World's been peaceful since then. You won't have to fight anymore, Ryo."
Ryo rubbed at his eyes: they'd unfocused again. "I've been gone for that long?" he said almost absently. "My parents…" Months in the Digital World, a few days in the human world, then more months passed during the tournament, but this time it had been longer since they'd seen him than since he'd seen them?
"I showed them Wormmon and told them you weren't dead so they wouldn't have to think you were gone," he was promised. "Oh! The Four Holy Beasts locked away V-mon's egg, but we found him, and Hikari found V-mon's partner! I… I'm just so glad. I've missed you so much."
He sounded so happy, Ryo thought. Older. Years. Three and a half, maybe even four of them? Was that why he looked and sounded a little different? "MoonMillenniummon said we'd fly through time together," he said. Was that why he had that same feeling he got when Millenniummon was nearby?
The god's aura pulled at you, made him seem too… Something that couldn't, shouldn't be fought. Tried to make Ryo feel that it was just ludicrous to even think about fighting this person. Was that how Millenniummon caught Digimon, pulled them towards him to kneel at his feet?
Ken said Millenniummon's aura gave him the urge to run away. It gave Ryo the urge to run away too, but only after he realized the effect it had on him, that something was messing with his head to try to lure him into the monster's grasp. It was terrifying…
…but because he was one of the Chosen (in theory, even if some of the others had pointed out that when he didn't have a digivice, or even a partner…) and could fight it, unlike the Digimon the evil god controlled. He could wake up and realize how wrong it was, to be in awe or something of a monster like that. Most Digimon didn't wake up unless someone purified them with a Digivice.
What was important was that if MoonMillenniummon was here, Ken wasn't safe. He managed to get to his feet, letting Ken help him up because Ken would feel bad if Ryo didn't let him help. His heart was pounding, something was screaming at him that something was wrong, something was very wrong, and panic? Panic was beginning to feel like an appropriate response.
Ken clasped Ryo's hand in his. "Are you alright? Did you get hurt?"
"Are you alright, Ryo?" Wormmon asked, down by Ryo's feet.
He shook his head. He might have been knocked around, but that wasn't important now. He didn't remove his hand from Ken's, but grasped it with his own in case he had to grab him and try to run.
For a moment he felt safe.
No, not safe. Something was very wrong and he had to keep Ken safe, even if Ken had his partner with him and Ryo didn't have V-mon, so he'd have to count on Ken to protect him.
So he was safe-something was wrong.
That feeling that here was absolute truth, absolute rightness, and he should forget all those petty mortal concerns like innocent people and place himself in the hands of his god… "MoonMillenniummon."
"He hasn't been seen since you… Since the mountain blew up. The spires seal the Four Holy Beasts out of the Digital World," Ken told him. "They should keep out other gods, too. We can scan the other dimensions for him, but as long as you're near a spire in the Digital World you're safe, Ryo."
Safe.
"Should I call Jou?" Ken asked him, then frowned at himself. "I should have brought Jou, I should have brought V-mon too, he fought beside you longer than I did. He should have been here to see you again as soon as you got here."
Ryo had called Ken during the D-1 Tournament to hear his voice, as the hairs rose on the back of his neck and he became aware that something was very wrong with the tournament. And those instincts were right, the whole thing was one big… lie. From people he'd thought would never lie to him, like Gennai, Taichi…
He turned back to look at his friend, and those were Ken's worried eyes, but even if he wanted to tell himself that Ken was just older that feeling. Ken was someone who needed to be protected, and while he could see a vulnerable heart in those eyes, the naked fear that Ryo might be hurt this feeling wasn't… Qinglongmon hadn't tried to draw him in. Qinglongmon had just been there, an immense weight holding the world in place, making destiny certain. Ryo knew Ken and Wormmon had the potential to be just as powerful as anyone else, but Ken wouldn't be interested in becoming a god.
That wasn't what his power was about.
Ken was softness surrounded by strength, because he gave his strength to others.
This, this was strength lying under softness. Solid metal camouflaged, not a flower in danger of being plucked. Even if what kind of person would take advantage of someone as nice as Ken?
"MoonMillenniummon."
Moonlight tricked the eye. MoonMillenniummon was a vengeful spirit, and spirits could possess people.
"You're… not Ken," he said, dreadful certainty warring with the wish for it not to be true. He wanted it to be wrong, but he should have wanted to protect Ken, not let Ken pull him up and tell him that everything was going to be alright.
He saw confusion he wished was honest. "You don't… recognize me?"
"Are you Ken?" Ryo asked him. When his former friend just stared at him he said, with a strange calmness. "Tell me that you're Ken."
Ryo saw raw fear for his friend instantly replaced by a soft light in those indigo eyes, both arrogant and rueful. "I could never lie to you, Ryo." Caught, and still he smiled.
Ryo couldn't move, frozen between the knowledge he needed to move, to get help, and the… horror of Millenniummon's grasp pulling him towards his friend. That poor little kid.
Stolen eyes stared into Ryo's, and that expression only softened further. "Once again, you destroy all my careful, patient work. Winning everyone's trust. Making them believe that the Child of Kindness could work programming on my level. Saving some of these vermin. Creating a peaceful world where you could let your guard down, especially in the arms of your dearest friend."
"And you're just taking off the mask?" It couldn't be that easy. This had to be meaningless, or Millenniummon wouldn't be just letting it happen. Stopping him was always an uphill battle even when he'd just come back to life a handful of days later or even immediately, in a stronger form. He never went down without a fight.
"I've worn many masks. A perfectly obedient automaton that would never dream of stealing Apocalymon's power for myself. An innocent baby Digimon that remembered nothing of their previous lives, no different from the rest of the slimes bouncing around Primary Village. And yet you see through this mask to the core of me." He laughed fondly. "Only you."
"What have you done to Ken?"
"He's right in here, safe and sound," the violet-eyed boy smiled, pressing a hand to his heart. "He dreams every night, true dreams of a loving partner and being someone everyone can count on for help. I needed to study his emotions in order to mimic them. This mask had to be flawless. Everything had to be perfect… but it still wasn't enough to deceive you," he chuckled. "No, I should have known that you would recognize me. I knew that you would be drawn to my side, as you always have before, but I thought that you would think I was another human. A dear friend, one who waited for your return so faithfully. And when we both grew a little older, you would find yourself longing for Ken as I longed for you, never knowing the true reason you were so drawn to me… But you knew in your core, my dear Ryo. I should have known that you would always recognize me, just as you will always come for me."
"Ken, I'll find a way to get him out of there," Ryo promised.
"You're… not… Ken?"
Wormmon's partner frowned at Ryo, ready to scold him for being unkind. "Your partner is here, Wormmon. It's his love for you, his happiness you've felt," he told the rookie, before looking at Ryo again. "Why would you be foolish enough to do this in front of him? I'm disappointed, Ryo."
"Like you care."
Tsk tsk. "A single tear from these eyes at your rejection, and he would have had you in a sticky net, kept you from hurting yourself until you came to your senses. Until I line item edited your memory. But I could never lie to you," Ken purred. "So very reckless of you, Ryo. What did you think would happen when you confronted me? Risking your chance to save your dear friend like that… Perhaps you were still disoriented from your voyage through time? I did say that we would be together, I simply took the long way. Wormmon was a great comfort to me while I awaited you, so I do care."
He smiled fondly at the insect, and when Ryo snorted answered with a laugh. "I'm as surprised as you are. It's something akin to how humans care for favored stuffed animals, I believe. They play at having friends, and their joy at those imaginings becomes associated with their little toys. Playing dear partners with him dulled the edge of my loneliness even as it whetted my appetite for you, my dear Ryo," the not-Ken purred, voice savoring every syllable.
"Leave him alone!"
The fake held out his hand to Ryo. "Why do you want him to wake up? He will dream a beautiful dream, of having a partner. Of being loved by you."
Ryo reached in his pocket, but the digivice that belonged to V-mon's partner was gone.
"I saved his brother's life," Millenniummon said. "I saved your life. I gave him everything he wanted in life, fulfilled his every wish. Do you think it a kindness to return him to the real world, let him watch his As become Cs, leave him thinking that his friends only admired me, never him, even if what they admired was the mask I crafted in his image, my mimic of his kindness?"
"And why did he never get the chance to learn that more people than just me would like him for who he is?" Ryo demanded. "You took his chances, you stole his life!"
"Sticky net!" Wormmon cried, enraged.
The attack hit, and Wormmon's tackle even knocked the evil god's stolen body to the ground, leaving Ken's partner victorious on top of his chest. "I'm so sorry, Ken," he said, sobbing. "I'm so sorry…"
Millenniummon laughed, and it would have been kind if kindness wasn't twisting the knife. "Blaming yourself is ridiculous, little rookie. It was impossible for you. The two of you never had a chance against me. Soft little lambs to the slaughter. It took a miracle for you to survive… So I knew that you and your partner had the favor of the power of Miracles."
"Don't… Don't look like Ken." So kind, despite the words coming out of his mouth. When Wormmon was used to being looked down on, a weak little virus, a pathetic creature, but precious to Ken because he was Ken's partner.
"Oh, don't cry. Ken was always by your side, so how were you to know when even he didn't?" Millenniummon made a face with his stolen one. "This is why I never dropped that mask, I can't do comforting without it. You know how to tend to the inferior Digimon you allow to fight for you: do something about this mewling child, Ryo."
Ryo knelt down next to his enemy to comfort his friend. "You caught him, Wormmon. It's going to be okay. We'll find Gennai and there has to be someone who can help." Unless Millenniummon had killed them all.
Millenniummon was smiling at him, looking approving and appreciative as Ryo gathered Wormmon to his chest and Ryo wanted to slug him. Except that would be punching Ken. "Do you know where he keeps his digivice?" Ryo asked the crying Digimon in his arms, squeezing him gently.
Not his. Ken's digivice. Could he use it to free Ken?
"He has his terminal, I know how to use it to call Koushiro and Wallace," Wormmon said, sniffles decreasing as he got ahold of himself.
"There," Ryo said. "That's the Wormmon I know." They called him the weakest rookie in the Digital World, and he hadn't had a chance to reach Champion because other Digimon benefitted from Ken's power too much for Wormmon to need to act as a last line of defense, but like hell he was letting anyone hurt his partner.
"All tied up…" Not that a rookie's power could hold the master of space-time for an instant longer than Millenniummon let it. A bit of web wasn't going to confine a bodiless Digimon. "A pity you're still so young. I found the most interesting things humans do with each other while I was studying the internet to create Diablomon."
Millenniummon… Millenniummon was planning to seduce him wearing Ken's body, a mask made from his friend? Not a hollowed-out puppet, but for some reason thinking that Ken would still have been in there just made it worse. Ryo might have done things to Ken, let Millenniummon use him like that, and he had to press his hand over his mouth and fight to not throw up. "Get out of there," he said, not sure if he was demanding or pleading, as soon as he could get the words out without feeling like he'd be sick.
The evil god ignored him. He might have dropped the mask, but how was Ryo going to force him to surrender such a good hostage? "Do you remember the last time we saw each other? Only a moment ago for you, of course. I woke up after the last time you defeated me to find you already there. No opportunity to plan any proper welcome." Such a pity. "Sending you into the future so I would be able to accomplish my plans without you thwarting them seemed an obvious move. Four years seemed like nothing, until I had to spend them hungering for you."
Millenniummon is an utter bastard - see Mugendramon. The Digimon Emperor is his Lighter And Softer knockoff. Which is why it is so pleasing to see him go smack into a well-earned brick wall.
Like when Mugendramon thought he had the Digidestined cornered, too exhausted to digivolve into anything strong enough to matter, and then he wipes away/out those Numemon the way we might brush off a fly and oh look, now Hikari's ticked and it is glorious.