"You want him to stay here?" V-mon's partner asked, sounding almost betrayed. "In Ken's room?" Wasn't Ryo Ken's friend? Why would he put Ken in danger like that?"
"It's alright, Daisuke," Ken said, trying to soothe the other Chosen Child.
"I guess it's better than having him somewhere else, doing who knows what." Daisuke grumbled, but if Ken thought it was alright and didn't want him to be angry?
"An adoring partner to protect and an adoring human protector," Millenniummon said, pleased. "I thought you were utterly pathetic trash, and that I would discard your shell once I had found a more suitable host body. I should never have doubted my partner's good taste." Another cool kiss to Ryo's cheek. "The power – or aspect of your human core – manifested by your crest seduces useful allies to your service, because they wish to preserve the resource you represent. Before the end of my first week in your body, I had the last artificial human and the Child of Courage's Agumon, along with your DNA Digivolution partner's V-mon, looking at each other, making a pact between them to do whatever they could to assist me." He laughed. "Between my partner's bond to me and the power of your human core within my stolen body, I knew Ryo would be irresistibly drawn to me."
"Too strong," Ryo said, tapping the head he still held against his shoulder.
"It seems I should have moved to the Black Orb Piemon placed within the last artificial human. Now that the data drain damage has been undone, the artificial human template looks something like my Ryo, therefore it must be attractive enough to serve…" The head Ryo wasn't holding down nudged his cheek again. "Have no fear for the Gennai, I know that you'll be on guard against me taking another host. You are feeling better?"
Ryo was silent for a few seconds, taking stock. "I guess I am," he said, opening his eyes, feeling almost disappointed.
"That's great!" Chibimon said, hopping up onto Ryo's stomach, only tall enough to poke his head up over the coil wrapped around Ryo's chest.
"Hey," Ryo said, smiling at him. "The two of us can handle anything, remember?" then he realized he'd referenced something V-mon wouldn't remember, in front of V-mon's real partner. "Sorry," he said.
"What have you got to be sorry about?" Chibimon asked him. "Piccolomon told me that we did all this awesome training, and when we found Daisuke I was going to be the best partner ever. Then they made me forget everything, all the stuff I learned!" The little dragon was so mad!
"Daisuke, I am so jealous of your partner," Ryo said, turning over on his side to see Ken sitting on his computer chair and Daisuke standing. "You got V-mon."
Yeah, Ken was still Ken, he decided. Millenniummon hadn't taken him over again while delivering Ryo there for some 'comfort.' Or maybe he would have if Ryo had let him leave instead of asking him to stay. Millenniummon was smart, and if he could stop Ryo from feeling his… partner… bond…
No, if he could do that he'd have done it for himself. If it weren't for the partner bond, Ryo knew what Millenniummon did to people. If he could even shut it down temporarily, who knew what Millenniummon would have done while he was able to treat Ryo like he was just any other human? Nothing that would have left Ryo in any condition to help fight him afterwards, that was for sure.
"…You are fortunate that I am aware my partner's fondness for dragon children is a reflection of his core's knowledge of my child form," Millenniummon told Chibimon. "That is the only reason I planned to allow you to be in Ryo's presence: so I could watch him play with you and spoil you."
He'd see Ryo's friendship with V-mon as nothing but a reflection of their bond, just like he'd been able to find some affection for Wormmon by seeing the little bug as something that would let him practice for Ryo?
If Ryo was living with these two… Having Wormmon and V-mon there would have been like old times. He would still have hoped that his partner would be found someday, but those two would have distracted him from the ache…
So he wouldn't notice that the ache was gone. Because his partner would have been right there by his side. In Ken's body.
"You really are diabolical, you know that?" he told Millenniummon.
"You know me well, my partner, even as I understand your true power." Once again he felt the touch of cool scales against his cheek. Didn't snakes go to sleep if they weren't warm?
"If you wanted to learn how to pretend to be Ken so much, then why didn't you let Ken stay in control most of the time?" Daisuke asked. "You can't have wanted to go to class and do homework!"
"I needed distractions. Practice makes perfect. Experiencing the tedium of those classes made it possible to divine the proper emotions to show when asked about them." That was three reasons, but doing anything for only one reason was bad tactics. "And you, Child of Kindness? Since Ryo wants me here, I'm sure he wishes me to indulge you."
"…I knew that I'd see Ryo again, that he'd show up with some Digimon who had helped him," Ken said. "What you did wasn't right, but I know I got off lightly compared to everyone else you controlled." He hadn't been forced to attack his friends. "That was for Ryo's sake, so even when he was gone, my friend was still protecting me. I couldn't have nudged Gennai into finding a way for me to keep my memories on my own, and as for sealing the Four Holy Beasts!"
"Don't sell yourself short, Ken." Daisuke frowned at him.
Ken shook his head. "I was always in Osamu's shadow. If I forgot Ryo and everyone else, and they forgot me? I would have forgotten all my new friends, even Wormmon. I wouldn't have known how to start contacting Koushiro and Wallace, and I wouldn't have thought they would want to talk to me. I couldn't have found V-mon's egg, or… You never met Millenniummon back then, Daisuke, and the others don't remember him. I do," he said, shuddering. "The Millenniummon I remember would have let Osamu die instead of using his power and risking anyone realizing there was more to it than just a program and my crest. If Osamu died and Ryo found out when he got here, my friend would have tried to help me feel better by spending time with me." Giving the usurper of Ken's body even more time to spend bonding with his partner. "Hikari's right."
"I mean, if Hikari really thinks he changed because of his partner I guess she'd know, but… Hey, what are you doing?" Daisuke demanded, and that was when Ryo looked down and saw the loose head had gone into his chest. He had a moment to realize that yes, it was doing something to him instead of just phasing through him the way those coils were ignoring the solidity of the mattress, and then he felt his mind falling back into his partner's form.
"Ryo!" Ken and Wormmon yelled.
"Did you just eat him?" he heard Daisuke exclaim, shocked.
Through a strange double vision (literally double – two pairs of eyes), Ryo saw V-mon ram right through MoonMillenniummon into Ken's wall, trying to headbutt the insubstantial Ultimate to force him to release Ryo.
"Is it good for you too?" MoonMillenniummon asked from all around him, and that was when Ryo became conscious of his body, or something like his body but without any actual organs, floating somewhere.
"What did you do?" Ryo demanded.
"Ryo? Are you still in there?" Ken asked.
Ryo turned his… wait, his heads? And Ken had heard his voice? "Am I in control of MoonMillenniummon's body? How does this even work?"
"Biomerge digivolution," his partner's voice resounded inside his head. Heads? Ryo really wasn't sure. "A technique of the other timeline I split off from this one for experimental data. It really shouldn't work in the human world, but I am the spirit of a God and you are the Child of Miracles." He laughed. "If we remain one, I will not be able to use my powers unless we use them. Together."
...A way to seal MoonMillenniummon? That meant Ryo would have to stay in the body of a Digimon. That was a small price to pay, he knew, "But I just got home," Ryo said quietly, despairingly. "My family missed me for four years, I…" He couldn't say 'I can't' when what he meant was 'I don't want to.' His fists, or maybe just the mental image of his fists clenched, but then he released them. "I should have known," he said, eyes dull. "You wanted both worlds, you wouldn't even let anyone have their own minds. Of course you wouldn't be satisfied with an hour a day."
For him to get home after so long, after his parents must have started to think that he wasn't coming home no matter what Ken said, just for them to lose him again?
"…You have spent four hours with me today. I would have offered you your choice of the snacks I keep there for Kera and Keramon if you had not become upset," his partner said, and let go. "I am aware that humans need some time apart, even from those they love."
But I don't love you, Ryo didn't say as they separated. He wished he did, he wished he had a partner he could love instead of one who kept doing terrifying things without even thinking of asking. Even to his own partner.
Opening his eyes, he tried to just be grateful that he was back in the real world, with his clothes back on.
"Look at him," MoonMillenniummon said, coiling in the air above him. "Once again I have overwhelmed my own partner, until he trembles at the sight of me. I cannot even barter to spend time in possession of the Child of Kindness, borrow the brain and spirit that let me pretend the softness he desires convincingly, or it will upset him even further."
"Of course I'll help," Ken said. "I'm not letting him possess me!" he quickly reassured a gasping Wormmon and a murderous-looking V-mon and Daisuke. "But my friend needs me," he told them apologetically, because he really had to help.
Daisuke folded his arms and let out a long-suffering sigh. "I guess I can't stop you then, but you're definitely letting me and V-mon come over to keep an eye on things."
Ken smiled. "Sure, Daisuke."
"I won you your crush: now win me my partner," MoonMillenniummon ordered him.
Daisuke blushed beet red. Ken stared.
"…It scares him less when I am blunt than when I speak to him as I wish to speak to him."
He should probably be trying to get up and get away after the god had absorbed him, Ryo acknowledged. He was just tired, and… and… Ryo grasped for words, different words than the reality: even though his partner was terrifying, he still felt safe here, and after so many terrifying things today he wanted to feel this way. He wanted the illusion. No, he wanted it to be real.
Ken looked at them thoughtfully. "It's not just that you have a hard time thinking of how to be considerate of others when you're not in character, is it? Ryo is… You're not used to feeling like this, and it's hard to handle strong feelings and think at the same time." Ken glanced at Daisuke for a moment, then smiled. "Right, Daisuke?"
"Hey, it's not my fault I get stupid sometimes when I like people, it's my crest! Just like you're way too nice and it gets you in trouble!"
"You let him get in trouble?" Ryo demanded, frowning up at the dark god, and then blinked when he realized that he'd spoken. Wasn't that the only good thing about Millenniummon possessing Ken, that he'd taken care of him while Ryo was gone?
"My host body decided to crush on a hero. Certain tactics were obvious." Red eyes looked down at him, impossible to read. His heads leaned down, watching Ryo for his reaction now.
Ryo wasn't going to struggle if Millenniummon tried to wrap around him again, but… he didn't want to have that conversation. If he offered, Millenniummon would think that Ryo meant things that he probably didn't.
"Ask him?" Ken prompted.
"Ask him what?"
"Well, what do you want him to do?"
"I want him to accept that he is bound to me eternally and become content with his fate, the way your partners are content. I want him to run to my side and climb into my coils for no reason but the joy of being near me, the way that Wormmon sought my lap. I wish for a number of things that can be done once he has reached physical maturity, but for now I want him to accept my training and teaching, to see his keen mind and strong will bent to some purpose other than my defeat."
"Teaching Wormmon how to cook was your idea?" Daisuke realized.
"It gave him more confidence, and with more confidence came not mere gratitude but more affection, when he had a reason to believe he was worthy to be in his partner's presence." A laugh. "Thinking that Ken would enjoy the sight of breakfast more than the presence of his partner: I thought it ridiculous, but now I am living that child's delusion and it irks me. To know that my partner does not enjoy the gift of my presence, but only endures it for the sake of others." MoonMillenniummon began to wrap around Ryo again, and Ryo didn't struggle.
He even put his hand on top of that head again, when MoonMillenniummon rested it on his shoulder. Hoping that he would?
It was one thing for MoonMillenniummon to be jealous because he wanted Ryo to be his and his alone, for him to try to attack and kill or drive off all of Ryo's protectors so Ryo would be helpless.
It was another to realize that his partner was hurt by Ryo not wanting to be anywhere near an evil god.
Wanting his partner to love him… didn't every Digimon feel that way? It was normal, maybe even nice. Not the same thing as wanting to separate Ryo from everyone else that Ryo loved. Not the same thing as wanting Ryo to be alone except for him.
That was what he'd tried to do, by flinging Ryo forward in time, but then he'd changed his plans. What he'd said in the lab: he'd planned to keep Ryo surrounded by not just friends in the other Chosen Children, but Wormmon and V-mon. He'd… he'd actually planned to make Ryo happy. Happy with people who loved him in a world where he didn't have to fight.
Huh. "You're actually really bad at this," Ryo realized, sitting up and holding that head to his shoulder so Millenniummon didn't think that Ryo was trying to get him off.
"While your strength and will are beyond compare, that Wormmon is far better at accepting affection than you are."
"Ken's affection," Ryo reminded him. "I'd like it if you were nice," he told those red eyes. "You're actually trying to be, aren't you? You just don't know how to act like…"
MoonMillenniummon shook his head. "My acting abilities have deceived gods and heroes alike. I cannot act when that would mean lying to you. I am driven to show you the core of me, and I am an evil god."
"Not acting-acting, but… remembering to ask before just going ahead and merging with people," Ryo told him. "I know you didn't ask Digimon what they wanted." They were just things to him. "Does what I want matter to you?"
"Your desires are my core's desires."
"Then if that's true, then act like it," Ryo told him.
"…Strategy, taking into account victory conditions, instead of deception?" A slow nod. The serpent's eyes narrowed, but his expression was anything but hostile, and a tongue darted out to taste the air (taste Ryo's scent on the air?) leisurely. "Your tactical acumen, even with so little memory to grant wisdom, is part of why I am pleased that you are my partner and frustrated that you are not yet mine. I desire you greatly, my Ryo," he murmured, and then frowned, eyes clearing, belatedly realizing that he'd been creepy again. "Even if I wish I did not desire you. It would make this far easier."
This was not going to be easy, but Ryo had taught Digimon how to fight, right? His partner wasn't stupid, and if he was willing to listen to Ken even if he'd despised Ken before? Wanted to try to learn for Ryo's sake?
Maybe, maybe, eventually, Ryo might someday have not Agumon or V-mon or a nemesis, but his partner. It still seemed impossible, but perhaps, if he played his cards right, he could make it possible? Someday?