Part Eight - Faustian
Ken… might be dying.
He doesn't know for sure. Everything hurts. His eyeballs, his arms, his chest, all coming from his neck. It hurts so much. Every breath comes out as a wheeze.
Wormmon whimpers. A larger hand than his feels his forehead. It's cold, so cold.
"Stay still, Kenny-boy," murmurs a comforting voice. "I'm sorry, it's just me."
Ken wants to tell him that he's good, that he's the best Ken could have asked for, but the idea of making a sound at all makes phantom agony ripple through his neck.
"Ssh, it's fine. If 'Sammy was here, he'd be more help, but I'll stay until they call me, okay? Promise."
The promise helps. The thought of his brother doesn't. If Osamu was here, he'd just scold Ken for making a mess and relying on others to fix it, even if he'd done it to help.
He focuses on breathing. In. Out. In. Out. Each one hurts, but the cool hand lets him focus. Everything slowly grows hazy, fuzzy, as he lays on his back.
Time passes. There's no meaning to it, no pace. Is this what he gets for not listening to his brother? Is this what he deserves for being a bad kid?
He hopes not. Sorry, Osamu, you died because of someone like me.
… It's not your fault, Ken-chan.
The world starts to crack. He can feel it in his bones, something , the pain in his neck? it cracks like a window hit with a baseball.
Everything tugs and Wormmon crouches on his chest.
Then, V-mon, who is normally so kind and warm, spits, "You." with so much anger and venom he thinks the dragon might explode.
A low, melodious voice laughs. It's dark, uncanny, spinning in his ears. "I didn't think you would recognize me. is it too soon?"
"Everyone knows you," V-mon says. "Everyone hates you because you hurt them!"
"The winners knew their god to bow down to."
"What do you want?" Ryo asks. He sounds… not nervous, exactly, maybe a little scared? But he's heard Ryo scared and that's not quite right.
They chuckle, rich and dark. "I would like to make a deal."
"A deal? Get lost!" V-mon shouts.
They laugh again, this time it sounds a little strained. "I could swat you like a Flymon, take what I'm here for, and not help you at all. But I am generous. I will cure your friend and he will do something for me."
Wormmon makes an agitated warble, but Ken forces himself to sit up. He opens his eyes. The room is hazy and everything feels like it's underwater, but he looks into a blue monster's face. It looks, vaguely like a man's until you see the mask and the sharp teeth.
"What do you want?" He thinks he says, but it comes through tar.
The monster laughs. he looks a bit familiar, but not enough for Ken to question it. "I want the thing growing in you. It's useful to me. And in return, you'll watch something for me."
"Just… watch?"
"Ignore him Ken-chan!" Wormmon urges. "He's just going to use you. Don't do it!"
"I'll take it whether you do this or not," the monster drawls. "This is the way he'll survive it."
Ken swallows. It's so hard to think. He thinks of Osamu's body mangled on the ground, his mother screaming. His father trying desperately not to cry in front of him.
He doesn't want them to deal with that again.
"Deal," he says.
The monster smiles and opens its mouth.
Ken stares at them both, uncomprehending. "What are you talking about?"
"You're not the only one tricked by him." Tailmon's fur fluffs up for just a moment. "I don't know how he survived and got to you, but Vamdemon if he isn't dead, is trying desperately to come back. Whatever he wants, whatever he promised, he's mainly in search of that. Helping you is only for him. I'm sure you know that."
"Of course I do." Of course, he does. He knows that his benefactor is full of shit and untrustworthy, but he also knows what they're doing is fully repairable. They just had to alter the code. It was easy. No harm, well, no lasting harm would be done.
It's what he tells himself.
"I know how to counter him, I know how to stop him, at least-" Ken stops. "In relation to me."
"Does the Kaiser?" Hikari asks the words with something softer than he thinks he deserves. But according to the videos she was just like that. Frustrating.
"Does it matter?"
Hikari pauses, off-guard. "Well, no, not really, not in terms of having to stop him."
What a strange admission. "You are very strange," he says, as a chill runs up his spine.
Hikari smiles without mirth. I know. It doesn't need to be said.
A tree falls in the distance and something roars. They both tense and Wormmon wiggles. "Ken-chan."
"Yeah," he says. "Get ready." He glances back at Hikari. "Do you really want to help me, even though you know what I'm doing? It's not just because you feel sorry for my brother, watching me be like this?"
Hikari stares at him. Then her expression darkens, her hand sliding to something in the bag around her shoulder. "I'm not the kind of person who solely does things for the sake of someone else."
Hm. So Vamdemon lied about that or misremembered. "Then get ready."
The monster - wendigo - plows through the trees, roaring with something cold and absent in its eyes. To think, that was a sweet rabbit who served tea and watched cameras.
Wallace - Kaiser - laughs from his place on an airdramon. "Giving up on us so soon, Kenny-boy?"
The problem, Ken knows, is that whatever had made Ken sick, had made Wallace change.