Part Seven - Monsters With Red Eyes

Ken hasn't thought much of Yagami Hikari. At least, when he saw Daisuke, he was interesting, noisy and inexperienced. The others were anomalies, the Takaishi person annoying the Kaiser for whatever reason (probably because he's not a special blond alone anymore), the kendo child and his strong sense of justice, the fear of the one with purple hair.

In retrospect, he and thus Wallace, should have been warier of Yagami Hikari.

They'd known there were previous chosen children, Wallace had been told by his so called benefactor about them, and about the cat that had foiled his plans. Apparently, he had talked a lot about that.

He takes a long breath, desperate to keep a grip on his temper, on the fear that rattles his bones. Kaiser thought he was crazy, of course, but he knows better. The digital world gives rise to children's hopes and dreams. What was wrong with his?

"How can you see him?"

Hikari looks at him wryly, not like the soft girl who had hung back at the edge and stuck by the sides of her friends, ever the peacekeeper on their feeds, but like he's a bit of an idiot. "I see a lot of things I'm not supposed to," she says. "I'm surprised you believe me, actually."

"That's because i have no reason not to." It's a real answer, genuine enough anyway. He has no reason to trust or not trust her just because Kaiser does not. "And because you pointed in a place that wasn't unnatural. My brother always stood at my left side because that was the hand I always reached for him with, and you pointed a little higher than my head, which is about the height he was when he died."

Hm. Still no horror. He guesses their adventures weren't harmless after all. Maybe Ryo-san would know, if he was here.

Or maybe there's just something wrong with her. Ken is pretty sure Daisuke would be upset about it. All he sees in her eyes is sympathy and compassion. He's sure Kaiser would see pity, but pity is for lesser beings, in his opinion.

"As to how, I don't know." She scratches her head, watching her cat, who hasn't left her side. Understandable. "I've just been able to notice things that weren't normal for a long time. He said you wanted to make things right. I… I'd like the answer but I don't need it. I just… is there something we can do to help?"

"No." The words are crisp, automatic. "Not a chance. You're…" The enemy. "You're life. You have the Kaiser. He's a much, much bigger threat than I am."

"You're a much longer term threat than he is," says the cat, glowering up at him. "To stop him, we simply have to break him. You won't stop if you're broken. That will just be incentive."

A chill runs down his spine and Wormmon bristles. It makes his digivice spark. "I won't let you hurt Ken-chan!"

"I'd hope not," she says archly. "But he seems to do that just fine himself."

"Tailmon," Hikari chides and the cat raises its paws, claws glinting in the moonlight.

Tailmon continues, now meeting Ken's gaze. "I was in your place once. It didn't work out in the end. I was lucky. You may not be. The only one who could protect you is the one you cannot afford to lose."

Wallace has insomnia.

Worse of all, he has unproductive insomnia.

It's something he knows Ken could remember about him if he bothered to care about anything besides a corpse that probably was happier dead than alive. He's lucky that he's so devoted to something good and noble and normal, as opposed to playing god.

It's not like he's going to succeed anyway, people will just feel sorry for him enough to save him.

No one is doing that for him, so Wallace tries not to think about it. Taking over the Digital World is an arduous task as it is.

"Wallace?"

Shit. "You're supposed to be asleep."

He means to scold his partner, he really does, to remind him of his place. (His benefactor preferred it this way.) But he just … can't. Lopmon is all he has left of something good.

Cracking the whip on others though… what's wrong with that if they're in the way."

"I know…" Lopmon wiggles himself up on the bed and, while he doesn't climb into Wallace's lap any more (he hasn't done that in a year. Wallace allows himself to be upset about it in private.), he stays very close to it in case Wallace is kind enough to scratch his oversized ears. "But one of your monitors is going off so I wanted to get you…"

One of his monitors? Who the heck would be here at this time of night? Who was even active at this time of night? Ken hated coming to the digital world at night for some reason. It was fine to him. He didn't need to call his mother.

Wallace groans and slowly gets out of bed. "Show me." His clothes melt back over his skin, as they always did when it was war time, visor and all.

Lopmon scurries to obey.

Terriermon would have laughed at him first.

Reaching the control room, Wallace settles into his chair and pulls up the monitors. After a few moments, he sees a whisper of movement in a place he doesn't have much coverage over. With a careful few keystrokes, he finally spots a bit of blue hair and a familiar green caterpillar.

Anger slices through him like a lance as he spots him staring at the girl on the other side of the room. His head splits with agony for a long moment as a foreign hate worms into his guts, eats at him, demands her head on a platter and Wallace-

Pushes it back with all the willpower he has.

"Good work, Lopmon," he says, as if from far away. "It looks like they almost got away with it. Shall we ruin their plans?"

"Are you sure?"

"Very." Wallace smiles. "I'm sorry, I'll need your help this time. Ken's clever, you know, smarter than me, but not very strong. If anyone can stop him from getting away, it's you."

The little one hesitates and Wallace doesn't mind. Then he balls his paws into fists. "I will! For Terriermon."

"For Terriermon," he agrees.

Everything for him.