Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Blood ❯ Only Dreaming ( Chapter 3 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Blood

Only Dreaming

By the Empress of the Eclipse

Disclaimer - I don't own Digimon.

GRAPHIC ICKINESS IN THIS! SENSITIVE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN WARNED TO RUN AWAY.

This isn't one of my best works but I tried my hardest to make it fairly good. Hope I haven't done too badly.

Thanks for all the reviews, they've been appreciated!

~~~

It was hot, hot enough to make Kari's hair cling to the back of her neck, glued there with sweat. Kari ran her fingers through her hair, trying to loosen it, then looked at the others who looked just as hot and miserable as her.

"Does anyone else have any ideas?" she asked.

There was a silence as the Digidestined stared blankly at her. They'd been looking for Davis for ages and their ideas had run very, very thin a long time ago.

"If only we could find the Kaiser's base," TK said bitterly "Then we'd get our Davis back."

There was an unhappy pause. Yolei was leaning against the nearest tree, her eyes closed, frowning. Since Davis's disappearance she'd developed more patience and understanding. But she'd lost weight. Too much weight really in Kari's view. Her cheeks were sunken, her eyes hollow. Her clothes hung off her. Her worry was almost palpable.

Kari had never realised that Yolei had been so fond of Davis before.

"It must move," Yolei said "The base I mean. Otherwise we'd have been bound to find it somewhere. We've practically searched every single INCH of the Digital World!"

"Move?" Kari said slowly "That would...make sense I guess."

"Either that or it's underground," TK said.

"Maybe both," Iori suggested "Maybe it's a tunnelling thing? Remember that hole we saw those Dark Ringed Digimon blocking up? I KNEW we should have searched there more!"

"That might make sense..." TK said slowly "I agree with you, we should have followed up that lead..."

They sat in silence for a while, each trying to think. It was something they did more and more often now; sat lost in their own little thoughts. Kari wondered what everyone else thought of when they sat like that. She always ended up remembering the old times, when Davis had been their leader. Even before then when she'd known him as the annoying boy in her class. She'd known him since she was five, he'd thrown a bucket of water over her head and she'd kicked him. They'd loathed each other until they were seven when all the boys had been playing grown ups and trying to find girls to go out with. Kari had been messing with her friends when Davis had come up and given her a bunch of daisies he'd picked. Since then Kari always joked, Davis had been permanently out to get her heart. She suspected it was more a game than serious although his rivalry with TK was deadly serious, because Davis always suspected that TK was more qualified to be the leader than he was. Which meant that TK always had to be crushed as much as possible.

Kari sometimes wondered why Tai had made Davis their leader. He'd never really been much of one. They'd never really obeyed him or done what he told them to do. In fact, they'd often ignored him completely when it came to decision making. And yet...yet he'd always had a presence. Something that made him a better choice than TK for leader. She wasn't really sure what but she just knew that Tai had been right; Davis had been good as their leader.

"Hey, I'm getting an E-mail from Izzy!" Iori said suddenly, breaking through Kari's thoughts.

"What's it say?" TK asked.

"He says that there's a strange signal coming from nearby. We should check it out," Iori said slowly, reading from his D-Terminal.

"Let's go then," Kari said, standing up. She was getting morbid again and action would get rid of that.

They followed the signal on their D-3's, not talking at all. Since Davis had been taken, they hadn't talked together so much. It just wasn't the same without Davis's cheerful voice adding his own (often insane) opinions to it. Kari had never realised that she got enjoyment out of Davis's remarks until the Kaiser had taken him. And now...

She swallowed. The only way she'd stayed sane though all of this was to keep telling herself that the Kaiser had no reason to kill Davis. None at all. He was just a kid like them. Ken Ichijouji might be deeply misguided but he was just a kid and a clever kid at that. He'd know better than to hurt Davis or he'd be in big trouble, Digital World or not.

But it didn't help. For the first month, Davis had sent them E-mails. About once weekly, E-mails had arrived. They'd never quite trusted them - they could easily have been from the Kaiser. But there was something unexplainably 'Davis' about the mails and they'd always offered Kari comfort when she'd received them.

But slowly something had changed. Despite the bravado, she'd sensed a growing terror from the E-mails. A growing sense from Davis that he thought he'd never get out. And that he was in danger.

And then they'd stopped coming.

TK and Yolei both insisted than the Kaiser had decided to stop him E-mailing them. Iori had never given his opinion. Kari wasn't sure what she thought any more.

But she knew that Davis was in big trouble.

"Wow," Yolei whispered, stopping.

Kari felt her mouth drop open.

In front of them was a huge building. At least, Kari supposed it was a building. It was caked with dust and grime and shaped in the bizarrely. It resembled an upside down street light with part of it bent upwards, forming a curve. There was a huge amount of displaced earth and Kari realised that it had either dropped from the sky with enough force to throw earth upwards - an extremely unlikely theory given that something that size crashing to earth should have made a much, MUCH bigger hole - or it had tunnelled upwards.

"So I was right," TK said softly "Ken's base WAS underground."

"Come on!" Yolei said.

"Wait!" Iori said "It might be a trap!"

Yolei frowned.

"We have to rescue Davis!" she said stubbornly.

Kari frowned too. Both Yolei and Iori had valid points. But should they risk it? Or not.

"Let's risk it," she said eventually "We might at least get a glimpse of Davis and know that he's all right. And we'll never get chance like this again."

The door proved easy to find. It was a simple hole in the side of the base. There was a gate but it was open. Slowly, they walked inside.

"It's very quiet isn't it?" Yolei whispered nervously.

Kari nodded, licking dry lips. She was sure that everything would be fine. They were going to find Davis. They were. They had to.

"Shouldn't there be guards or something?" Iori whispered "This is too easy."

TK nodded his agreement, eyes narrowed.

"There's something going on here," he said "Something bad."

"Is it a trap?" Yolei suggested.

"Could be," Iori agreed "We should be careful."

They reached a passage way of cages. Many had Black-Ringed Digimon crouched in them. Several did not. The Digimon there looked thin and hungry. Some paced their cells randomly but most simply lay on the floor, waiting.

"They look like zoo animals," Yolei said "Badly treated zoo animals! This is horrible."

Kari nodded. She felt TK grip her hand and was grateful for it. She needed physical contact with someone warm and real.

"Veemon?" Iori shouted suddenly "Veemon?"

"Shhhhh! What if the Kaiser hears you?" Kari hissed.

"Iori?"

The voice was faint, coming from one of the cells. Kari ran towards it, her heart pounding.

Veemon was crouched inside. He looked better fed than some of the other Digimon but his face was tired and miserable.

"Veemon! Oh God, you're okay!"

The others were gathered round. Veemon smiled.

"Hey," he said weakly "I'm tired of this place now."

"How's Davis?" Kari said "Is he okay?"

"He was last time I saw him," Veemon said, his voice small "But...but that was a while ago. The Kaiser's kinda erratic when it comes to visiting orders."

His voice cheered up.

"But Davis promised me he'd be fine and stay strong! So he will have done!"

"We have to get him outta there," TK said "And the other Digimon too!"

"Leave it to us!" Armadillomon spoke up.

He Armour Digivolved to Digmon and easily cracked into to the cells. There was an immediate stampede, the Digimon that could move racing out. It was as though the Black Rings had no power any more because they seemed able to flee. Some remained still.

"They need food!" Yolei said.

"We'll sort them out when we've found Davis," Kari replied.

It was almost an obsession now, burning inside her. The base frightened her and all she could imagine was Davis trapped in here for over a month with no one but the Kaiser to talk to. It was hideous to contemplate and she just wanted to find him and help him out of there.

They walked along the corridors, Yolei carrying the tired Veemon.

"Shouldn't we have met some guards by now?" Iori whispered.

"It's like below," Kari said "No guards. Nothing to stop us. Like I said, there's something really, really wrong."

She began peering into all the rooms they passed. They were generally machinery, perhaps concerned with the running of the base. Everything was covered with dust, as though it hadn't been used for a while. One room was a grand library. It too was filled with dust. A dinning room, a bedroom...all looking unused and empty, full of dust and cobwebs and the strange smell that went with abandoned places. Come to think of it, Kari had smelt that smell since they'd entered. The air felt damp on her skin, cold. Unheated.

"This is creepy," Yolei said.

She said it blankly, almost questioningly. Kari wondered what response she wanted for that remark. She didn't know and therefore didn't speak. This place felt that no one had spoken aloud for years. Dark. Abandoned. Lonely.

"Davis?" she called softly into the near-dark "Davis?"

There was no response. The whole place was as silent as the -

Kari cut off that thought before it could finish.

They walked into what had to be the control room. There were screens all around them. Some still showed parts of the Digital World. Others no longer worked, buzzed with static 'snow'. One was cracked like someone had thrown something at it, a long jagged crack down the centre.

"Wow," TK offered.

Kari said nothing. She opened the door to another room that she saw off the side of the throne room. There was a sweet smell in there, a smell like roses. The room was faintly lit, enough to see quite clearly. There was a bed and there was a figure lying in it. A figure mostly covered with the duvet. A figure with russet red hair and goggles.

Besides him sat the Kaiser. He was holding Davis's hand in his and was stroking Davis's hair. The Kaiser's face was milky pale and his spikes drooped about his face, almost flat. He wasn't wearing his glasses any more. His lips were moving and Kari realised that he was whispering to Davis, so quietly that she couldn't hear him.

"DAVIS!"

It exploded from her lips in a burst. The Kaiser looked up at Kari, looking slightly surprised. He didn't look angry or bothered, just startled and slightly confused.

"Shhhhh," he said, his voice mildly reproving "You'll wake him up."

Kari could feel the others crowding around her, lending her support. They were all staring at the Kaiser and at Davis on the bed. She swallowed. There was something wrong with all of this. The way the Kaiser was looking at her felt all wrong. His eyes were slightly dreamy and surely he ought to care more about their arrival?

"He's asleep?" she repeated nervously.

The Kaiser nodded.

"He was ill for a while," he said "But he's better now. Or will be when he sleeps more."

He reached out and gently brushed a strand of hair from Davis's face.

"Sleep," he repeated, his voice dreamy "That will make it all better."

He looked at Kari again.

"You can't take him away," he said, sounding almost pleading "He's happy here now. He likes it here. He's my love, my special little love and you can't take him away!"

His voice was going hysterical. Kari kicked Yolei and nudged TK before either of them spoke, then put on her most soothing smile.

"Of course we won't take him," she said very gently "Of course we won't. We just need to know that he's okay because he's our friend. We wouldn't dream of taking him away from you..."

She walked closer very slowly, Gatomon and Veemon pressing close to her, lending their support. The Kaiser blinked at her.

"Promise?"

"Of course," Kari said, keeping her voice soothing. She knew that Ken was insane. She could see it in his face, the way he was acting so erratically. She didn't want to provoke him any more than necessary. If they could keep him calm, perhaps they could rescue Davis by being careful.

The Kaiser was relaxing. She could see it. His body was relaxing, he was turning his attention back to Davis's sleeping form, as though they weren't even there. Slowly, Kari reached the bed and looked at Davis anxiously. Davis's face was waxy against the pillows, his lips grey and slightly parted. There was something...funny about his face, something she couldn't place her finger on...

The smell like roses. It was stronger here.

It came from Davis.

Slowly Kari reached down and touched Davis's face.

It was cold.

Not cold as in needing to warm up. Cold as in...

Kari dropped her fingers to Davis's temple, trying to find that gently beating pulse. There was nothing.

Kari swayed. She heard footsteps and TK grabbed her.

"Kari? What's..."

His voice trailed away. He knew by looking, knew what she'd refused to believe when she'd seen that waxy face and grey lips, what she'd refused to believe until she'd felt his lack of pulse. Knew that Davis Motomiya was dead.

TK put his arm round Kari, holding her close.

"No," she heard Yolei whimper behind her. Obviously she'd reached the correct conclusion from Kari's trembles and TK's silence.

Veemon sprang onto the bed. He pushed at Davis hopefully.

"Davis? Wake up Davis!"

He shook Davis more vigorously, looking pitifully confused. The Kaiser struck out, sending Veemon flying.

"HOW DARE YOU?" he shrieked "Don't dare disturb him, don't you DARE!"

Kari looked. The blankets had slipped and she could see Davis's body. He wasn't wearing a shirt and his chest was visible.

There was a gaping knife wound. Cleaned of blood but there, obviously the place where all the blood had drained from his body, all of Davis's life fluid leaving him.

Kari turned away, her body shaking. She saw the Kaiser raising his arm again, Veemon crouching frightened on the floor.

"Don't!" she said, catching the Kaiser's arm "Veemon's sorry! He didn't mean it! Please don't get angry!"

The Kaiser slapped her. Kari gestured at the others, trying to stop them doing anything. She looked at the Kaiser.

"I'm sorry," she said again "I'm really sorry."

"You should be."

Ken sounded sulky, was even pouting.

"I'm the Digimon Kaiser you know."

It was said like a child, a sulky child who wants you to believe something that they don't think you will. Kari nodded.

"I know," she said softly "We're sorry to have bothered you. I'm glad Davis is okay."

"He'll wake up soon," the Kaiser said dreamily "Then we can play. Do you want to stay and play?"

"No," Kari said, thick tears clogging her throat, making words difficult "We'd best go. Tell Davis...tell him that we said hi."

Yolei turned and ran out. Kari could hear her hysterical sobs. Ken either couldn't or no longer understood what that meant.

"Sure I'll tell him!" he said, sounding cheerful "He'll be glad to have heard from you! He missed you..."

His attention was wandering back to Davis now, as though he couldn't keep his attention on anything else for long. Kari stared at him silently, thinking about the news reports she'd heard about Ken Ichijouji, everything that she knew about him. She compared those news stories to this strange person who was sitting there, smoothing a dead boy's hair, holding his hand.

"Let's go," she said softly.

"But..."

Iori was looking enraged, Kari had never seen anyone so angry and never thought that she'd first see it on Iori's face.

"Let's go," she repeated.

Slowly they walked out into the throne room where Yolei was huddled, sobbing hysterically into her hands, shoulders jerking. Iori went over and wrapped an arm round her shoulders.

"Why are we leaving him?" he spat "Davis's dead! Why are we LEAVING him here? He should be in the real world, he should be put in prison forever, he should..."

"He's already in prison," Kari said quietly "He's in a prison of his own making. Didn't you see him? He's crazy."

"I don't care!" Iori said, tears beginning to trickle out of his eyes "Davis is dead!"

"No court in the world could try him for this," TK whispered "It was done in the Digital World. No one would ever understand."

"He's obviously been mummified," Kari said "The smell of roses. Ken mummified him and is...he doesn't even believe that Davis is dead."

"How can he not know!" Yolei blurted "How can he not know?"

"Because he's mad," Kari said "Completely insane."

There was a long silence then. Yolei was still sobbing into her hands, Iori still trying to comfort her and wipe his own tears away. TK was staring at one of the snow-buzzed screens on the wall. Kari couldn't see if he was crying or not. Veemon was sitting on the floor, tears dribbling down his face as the other Digimon tried to comfort him. They appeared confused, perhaps not understanding what was really happening.

Kari couldn't cry. She was beyond tears.

Strangely, it was easy to accept what Ken had done. It was even easier to accept that Ken wasn't going to jail and that he was going to stay here in the Digital World. She didn't care one way or the other. The Kaiser would do no harm to anyone. He was lost in his own world of pain and fear. A world where only he and Davis existed.

Only now Davis didn't exist any more.

She could hear Ken inside the room. He was singing softly to Davis, a song which seemed to be about saucepans.

"Let's go home," she said quietly.

Slowly, the Digidestined walked out of the throne room. They did not look back.

The End.

Well, I hope this wasn't too bad. Personally, I'm not so sure that this chapter didn't...suck basically. But never mind. Hope it wasn't too bad!