Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Drifting Pieces ❯ Lucid Dream ( Chapter 18 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Author's Note: The first 17 chapters of this fic have been rewritten and edited since its original posting in 2010 (chapter’s 16-17 updated in late August of 2012). It was then put through a hard edit. If you have not visited since October of 2010, I recommend that you start over. It’s worth it (09/2012). From here on out, every chapter posted is new.

This chapter took me the longest to write and the longest to be satisfied with. It has a lot in it and I hope you enjoy every bit of it. Please review.

Chapter 18: Lucid Dream

Something was wrong.

Hikari wasn’t sure what exactly it was that had awoken her, but she knew that something was off.

The room was dimly lit and she could just barely make out the sleeping form of Miyako in the bed next to her. Apart from the soft puffs of breath, Miyako was still and silent.

Sitting up, Hikari waited silently, practically holding her breath.

A minute passed and then another. Perhaps she had just imagined it.

She was just about to lay back down and attempt to go back to sleep when she heard a soft creak from the hall.

Carefully climbing out of bed so as not to disturb Miyako, she crept to the door and cracked it open. The hall lights were running smoothly now, meaning that Kaiser had kept his word and restored power to the base.

Despite the light, the hall still felt cold and uninviting. A chill ran down her spine as the sound of shuffling from the end of the hall reached her.

She waited for her eyes to adjust to the light before slowly slipping out into the hall and closing the door quietly behind her.

There was a figure moving down the hall slowly, stooping now and then to move aside some of the left over debris they had yet to clean up.

Once her eyes had fully adjusted, she could make out the familiar dark spikes and stiff posture of Kaiser, who appeared to be looking for something.

“Kaiser?” She called out timidly.

He stopped mid stoop and slowly straightened back up before looking back towards her.

She was once again hit with an overwhelming sensation that something wasn’t right.

Against her better judgment she moved closer, suddenly very much aware of her bare feet on the cold metal floor. “Is everything alright?”

“I have to find it. I was careless.” Kaiser turned his attention from Hikari back to the rubble.

“Find what? Did you lose something?” Hikari glanced down at the piles of debris that had been swept aside out of the main path.

“Osamu.” His voice was quiet and strained.

She was about to question him further when a glint caught her attention from under a broken desk.

“Is this what you’re looking for?” She bent to retrieve a pair of cracked glasses and gingerly held them up.  

Kaiser looked up sharply but he did not move to retrieve them. He seemed to be considering them before he smiled oddly. “They used to be whole. Just like me. Ken has the other half. I wonder if his is broken too.”

Hikari glanced down at the glasses in confusion. The glass lenses glinted brightly, sending her own cracked reflection back at her.

“I don’t understand.” She suddenly felt small as the hallway loomed up around them.

Kaiser’s eyes watched her from the darkness, so much like Ken’s but at the same time, so much more.

“Can’t you feel it? The pieces are being pulled together again.” Kaiser slowly started to move closer.

A flash of anxiety ran through her as she realized that she could feel it. She could feel the way the glasses seemed to burn her hand and pull at her as if they had a will of their own.

“What will happen when you are whole?” She looked up at Kaiser fearfully.

“Chaos.” The voice came from directly behind her, making her cry out as she spun around and stumbled back, dropping the glasses in the process.

Ken looked impassively at Hikari and the Kaiser, his eyes flat and distant. “He likes to pretend he’s in control, doesn’t he?”

Next to her, Kaiser stiffened as Ken slowly took a step forward. His heel carefully set down near the glasses, his foot set firmly just over the delicate frames.

“He likes to think that I am weak and naïve.” There was a creak as Ken lowered his foot further.

Hikari felt a chill run through her as Ken smiled without any kindness.

“Tell me Hikari… Which one of us is real?” There was a crunch as Ken shifted his weight.

Her mouth ran dry. “You’re both real. You’re both parts of the same whole.”

“That seems to be the popular consensus around here, doesn’t it? If that is the case, what will happen when we become whole? What would happen if one is tainted? Wouldn’t the whole become tainted too?” Ken reached into his pocket and casually drew out a pristine pair of glasses that were identical to the ones that were now shattered under his heel.

Kaiser’s eyes widened. “Don’t.” It was a pleading whisper as Ken held up the glasses, almost seeming to be examining them.

Panic filled her as she could see it coming but could do nothing to stop it.

A snap and crunch echoed down the hall as Ken clenched a fist tightly. Blood ran between his fingers, dripping steadily to the floor as the broken shards cut into those powerful fingers.

Slowly, Ken opened his hand and the shards of glass and twisted remains of the frame fell to the floor, lifeless and dull. “Now they can be whole again.”

Next to her, Kaiser inhaled sharply and clutched at his own hand as blood slowly started to drip down his fingers.

Hikari felt frozen to the spot, trembling as she watched the blood spatter to the floor. The hall was echoing with each drip as the floor appeared to ripple like water…

It’s coming.

“Ken…” Her voice squeaked out in terror as she felt the water start to flow over her bare feet.

Neither boy responded as they both stared down at their bleeding hands in a sort of trance.

“Ken. We have to get out of here.” She felt the panic start to take over as the water quickly rose up to her shins. “It’s coming!”

Slowly, Ken looked up at Kaiser. “Let’s be whole.” He suddenly moved, tackling the Kaiser back into the water.

“Ken! Don’t!” She screamed as the two struggled. Ken easily had the upper hand as he straddled Kaiser and pinned him back roughly. Hands wrapped around Kaiser’s throat as Ken held the struggling boy down under the rising waves.

She tried to move, wanting to pull the two apart, but found herself held in place by some unseen force as the waves rose to her knees.

Kaiser’s struggles were starting to waver as Ken’s grip refused to budge. “Ken!” She screamed again, trying to snap him out of whatever it was that had him and force some sanity back into those cold hard eyes.

“Ken, please!” She pleaded as fingers squeezed tighter, thumbs pressing inward until there was a snap. Kaiser’s hands fell limp under the waves and Ken’s lips curled into a cruel smile.

The waves surged, crashing around them and rising to claim them both.

“Hikari!” Miyako’s voice cut across the waves.

Hikari bolted up in bed, gasping and flailing her arms out against the water. She was trembling and disoriented, her teeth chattering as she drew her knees to her chest and fought back the sobs that twisted at her insides.

The main light was on and Miyako was sitting up next to her looking worried. “Hikari? Are you alright?”

It took a moment before Hikari could speak. “What… What happened?”

“You were having a nightmare.” Gatomon spoke up from beside her. “You kicked me right off the bed.” She flicked her tail in a show of annoyance, but her eyes gave away just how worried she had been.

“It was a dream…” She closed her eyes, waiting for the bliss of being awake to slowly wash the dream away.

“It was a pretty bad one.” Hawkmon spoke up solemnly from the foot of the bed. “You were thrashing around and crying out pretty loudly.”

She could still see the broken glasses on the floor. The blood running down slender pale fingers. The waves rising to consume him. And that smile.

She was still trembling as she swung her feet over the side of the bed and got up. “I have to check something.”

The others watched in surprise as she moved to the door. She was already out in the hall before they snapped out of it and ran after her.

“Hikari? What is it? What’s the matter?” Gatomon trailed closely behind her.

“I need to be sure.” Stopping in front of the main bedroom, she couldn’t help but hold her breath.

As quietly as she could, she opened the door and looked inside, bracing herself against whatever nightmare might jump out at her.

The room was quiet, still, and dark. Her eyes fell on the forms nestled together on the bed as she waited for the light in the hall to slowly piece the forms together into distinguishable shapes.

Her breath escaped her as Daisuke snored loudly and attempted to roll over. Ken lay motionless at his side, arms lightly draped over the other boy.

A sigh of relief escaped her as she closed the door and turned back to her own room. Miyako raised an eyebrow in a signal that she wanted to know what was going on, but wouldn’t ask if Hikari didn’t want her to.

“Just making sure the bedbugs aren’t biting.” Hikari scooped up Gatomon in a comforting hug and headed back to her room. As Gatomon snuggled into her arms, she knew that she would sleep easily through the rest of the night. Ken was safe and snug in bed with Daisuke. It had all just been a terrible dream.

Miyako shook her head and followed, too tired to argue. Rubbing her eyes, she winced as she stepped on something sharp. Blinking blearily down, she made sure she wasn’t bleeding then carefully nudged the mangled thin metal frames and shards of glass aside to join the rest of the debris.

--

Kaiser sat in the control room, listening to the hum of the freshly repaired engines and basking in the flickering glow of the monitors.

The monitors that weren’t broken beyond repair were alternating between a heavy static and a blank blue screen. The steady hiss of electric snow filled the room, calming and hypnotic as it ebbed and flowed.

Behind him, he heard the door slide open and quiet footfalls making their way across the room.

“Did you wake him?” Kaiser kept a steady gaze on the center screen, waiting.

“No. You know how heavily he sleeps. He won’t wake until it is too late.” Ken stopped at Kaiser’s left.

“Light has declined our invitation.” Kaiser stood and moved closer to the screens.

“I had a dream that I killed you.” Ken ignored Kaiser, moving to take up his place in the thrown. “I crushed your trachea with my own fingers.” He looked down at his hands with a sense of wonder.

“Hope will accept it, though. I’m sure he’s on his way now.” Kaiser reached up and placed a hand against the screen. “Courage will be late, as always, but he will find a way.”

“Did you hear me?” Ken clenched his hands. “I could feel it snap as I held you down. I could feel the life draining away out of you. I felt your heart stop!”

“What do you think we’ll find there?” The static was almost rhythmic now, building and crashing then fading away again. He could almost trace a pattern across the screen as the electric snow started to form shadows and shapes.

“It felt real.” Ken sat back in the chair, a hand moving to slowly tap at the arm rest. “I could feel you. I could see you. I… I wanted you to die. There was so much anger. So much malice. I wanted to crush you. I wanted it. When I woke up, I still wanted it. I want it now.”

Kaiser laughed softly as the image started to become clearer. “We’re running out of time.”

“Kaiser! Listen to me!” Ken slammed his fist into the arm rest and stood up. “Don’t you understand what I’m telling you?”

Kaiser glanced back and looked at him pityingly. “I understand perfectly. I think you’re the only one that still doesn’t get it. It’s not the spore, Ken. It never was. It’s you. It’s always been you.”

“What are you talking about?” Ken still didn’t see it. He wouldn’t be able to see past the static until the forms were solid lines.

“It’s a gate. That’s all it was supposed to be used for. This isn’t where it belongs. Oikawa understood the basic concept, but he got the end result all wrong. When the flower blooms, it opens a door across the dimensions and worlds. The problem was that the seeds he used were fake. He couldn’t control the door and the flowers were forced. Ours is the original. It was supposed to draw its energy from us.” He lowered his hand and turned to look at Ken fully. “We were supposed to die for the flower. We could give it the life it needed and it would bloom, opening the door between this world and all worlds.”

Ken’s eyes widened and Kaiser knew that Ken was remembering vague and fevered moments of him in the sand screaming in pain and burning up in fever. Kaiser closed his eyes as he fought back the memory of Ryo sitting at his side and clutching his hand through the worst of it.

“Why didn’t we?” Ken’s voice was full of pain and regret. “Why didn’t we die out there? It would have made things easier. It would have prevented so much loss!”

Kaiser’s smile twitched at the corners as he struggled to hold it in place. His eyes burned and his throat clenched unpleasantly as he forced his voice to stay steady. “I think you know the answer to that, Ken.”

Ken screaming in the sand, thrashing as he clawed at the back of his neck. Strong arms wrapping around him and holding him still. A gloved hand slipping into his and squeezing tightly. “Ken, hold on! Don’t you give up on me! I’m not ready yet, damn it! I’m not ready… Please… I’m not ready…”

“No.” Ken’s eyes widened and Kaiser turned back to the monitor, wondering if Ken could see the shores yet. “That’s not what happened.”

Ken curled in cave as a sandstorm passed by around them. Ryo stroking a hand over his forehead, pushing away the damp hair and trying to cool the boy down. “It wasn’t supposed to end like this. It was supposed to be me. It was supposed to be me.”

“No.” Ken’s eyes shifted to the center monitor as the static solidified and waves flickered in and out of focus.

Ryo placing a hand on the back of Ken’s neck, feeling cold in comparison. “Take me instead.” Ryo fighting back tears as he looked up at the night sky. “Do you hear me? I know it can be done. I’ve seen it. Give him my life force. I don’t care how you do it. Just don’t let it kill him!”

Ken was so hot. It felt like he was on fire while every muscle and bone in his body ached. He could hazily make out a great light enveloping Ryo as the boy stood out in the open. To him, it looked like the sunrise as the light passed between the two.

“Ken…” Ryo moved his lips as he tried to say more, but the light was already gone from his eyes. The empty shell fell to the sand as the back of Ken’s neck erupted in red hot searing pain.

There were screams, though Ken wasn’t sure if they were his own. He could feel the thing inside of him twisting and pulsing as it slowly fell silent.

“Ryo slowed the process. By slowing it, he allowed the spore to draw energy from us over a long period of time. This allowed us to live while it continued to bloom.” Kaiser looked down. “Ryo was not expecting it to be so fast. I think… He had wanted time to say goodbye and make peace. The spore sucked the life out of him so fast the Digital World didn’t even have time to take proper care of his body.”

Ken could see it now, his eyes following the movement of the waves as the tide started to come in. “It continued to draw power from me until I woke up and stopped being the Kaiser.”

“No.” Kaiser smiled. “When ‘you’ woke up, you were so jolted that you stunted it. It fell dormant until your little break down. When the spore woke up, it needed more energy than you could give it. It had lost the ability to simply suck you dry, you see.”

“It split itself.” To his credit, Ken kept his face blank and his voice neutral, though Kaiser could feel his heart fluttering inside his chest.

“Yes.” Kaiser laughed. “Isn’t that amazing? It divided itself to draw in double the energy. Divided us… Soon, it will pull back together and bloom. We’re running out of time.”

“What happens then? What happens when it blooms?” There was a note of fear in his voice now.

“I don’t know.” Kaiser chuckled. “I can’t wait to find out.”

“I won’t rejoin with you.” Ken clenched his jaw stubbornly.

Kaiser’s lips curled into a cruel smile. “It’s not your choice to make anymore.”

“I will find a way to stop you. To stop this. I won’t let it bloom and I won’t let you win, Kaiser.” Ken turned away and headed back towards the door.

“My dear sweet boy,” Kaiser called out sweetly. “I think you should call me by my real name now, don’t you think? Or would you rather kill me with kindness?”

Ken stopped and ran a trembling hand up through his hair distractedly, messing up the perfectly straight strands before frantically smoothing then back down again. “You are not Ken.”

“Neither are you.” Kaiser smiled and lifted a hand to tenderly stroke the bruises that had formed around his neck.

--

Takeru couldn’t sleep.

He’d spent several hours laying on his back and staring up at the ceiling, listening to the digimon snore softly, before he finally gave up.

Getting up quietly so as not to disturb Iori, he tiptoed past the bed and carefully opened the door just enough to slip through before closing it again.

Once out in the cold hallway, he started walking. He didn’t know where he was going, but anything had to be better than just laying there waiting for what wouldn’t come.

The lights through the base were flickering and humming gently, though as he walked, he noticed the lights steadily growing dimmer. The whole base seemed to be in an unnatural state of stillness as he moved through the empty halls.

Eventually, he found himself outside of the main control room. He was unsurprised to find a lone figure standing in the dark room, basking in the eerie glow of several static filled monitors.

Takeru hesitated then cautiously stepped forward. “You really don’t sleep, do you? I would think that it would be easier to be a genius if you got a good night sleep now and then.”

Kaiser didn’t respond, appearing to be deep in thought as he stared up at the monitors.

“Look,” Takeru sighed and moved closer. “I want to talk. We can’t keep doing this. I can’t keep doing this. Maybe I am jealous. Maybe I-”

“It’s here.” Kaiser cut him off as he lifted a hand to the main monitor and slid his fingertips slowly across the surface.

“What are you talking about? What’s here?” Takeru moved closer and squinted up at the static filled monitor.

No, not static. He squinted as a picture flickered across it, going in and out of focus quickly.

Takeru slowly took another step closer, forcing himself to see past the white noise. At first it appeared to be nothing but a black and white view of the desert, but as Takeru watched the picture cleared up and he found himself looking at a familiar beach and ocean that he had hoped to never see again.

“How is that possible?” He licked his dry lips and found himself unable to look away.

“I think I’m already there… Maybe I never left. This whole time…” Kaiser’s voice was small and frail, bringing back memories of a confused boy desperately trying to make sense of a world that had betrayed him.

The ocean slowly grew clearer on the screen until the static was almost completely gone. “Kaiser.” Takeru found his own voice to be lacking in the strength he so desperately needed at that moment. “Turn it off.”

Something flickered across the screen and Takeru nearly jumped back. Kaiser remained perfectly still, a hand pressed to the screen lightly.

“Kaiser.” Takeru felt a growing sense of panic start to clench down around his chest as a dark figure started to appear out on the sand by the waves. “Turn it off. Close the gate.”

The figure shifted and slowly started to move closer, growing larger and clearer on the screen with every step.

“Kaiser!” Takeru moved to the other boy and shook him slightly. “Close the gate!”

Kaiser didn’t respond, his eyes wide and pupils small as he kept his focus completely on the screen.

The screen flickered and Takeru looked back up at it in alarm. The figure was much closer now, almost clear through the static as it continued to move closer and a strange sense of familiarity washed over him as he watched it.

Another few seconds and he was certain he’d be able to see the figure’s face clearly.

Panic overtook him as he lunched forward and slammed a fist into the screen, hardly feeling the impact through his adrenaline.

The monitor cracked and the picture crackled as sparks shot out in a hiss before the screen turned black.

Slowly, Takeru pulled his hand back and turned to the Kaiser angrily. “What the hell were you doing? You were going to just let that… That thing in here!”

The one benefit to having the spore was that it seemed to always allow Ken the ability to keep a connection to the Digital World. The others always needed to use already formed gates, but Ken had the unique ability to create his own paths. Even with the guardians cutting him off from getting there, the spore had allowed Ken to slip past any barriers. The downside was that the spore didn’t seem to limit Ken to just the Digital World.

Judging from the fading glow on the back of Kaiser’s neck, Takeru was willing to bet that the spore had been attempting to go home… Or bring home to them.

Kaiser shuddered and blinked in confusion as he snapped out of his daze. He looked from the shattered screen to Takeru blankly. “It’s too late.”

Takeru did his best to ignore the growing pain in his hand as he fought back the urge to start throttling the other boy. “What’s too late? What have you been doing?”

He winced as he attempted to move his fingers and found that one just wouldn’t budge.

Kaiser tilted his head to the side slightly, seeming to consider something while looking at Takeru. “Will you come with me?”

“What?” Takeru took a step back and Kaiser took a step forward.

“Can’t you feel it calling? This whole time… Can’t you feel it? Each time you ignore the warnings of that girl… Each time you give into despair. It already has you, Takeru.” Kaiser moved even closer and reached out, taking Takeru’s injured hand lightly.

Takeru resisted for a moment before allowing Kaiser to look it over. Something about the soft purr of the Kaiser’s voice almost seemed to hypnotize him, creeping inside as some part of him agreed with those alluring words.

“Don’t worry. It couldn’t reach the girl. Her darkness has been balanced by the light she carries inside. It can’t touch her.” Pain shot through Takeru as Kaiser grabbed the damaged finger and pulled hard, snapping a dislocated joint back into place with a sickening pop.

Takeru could only gasp and breathe deeply as he struggled to work through the pain, tears blurring his vision while his teeth gritted together sharply.

“Such a foolish boy. You can’t stop the darkness forever.” Kaiser giggled softly as the room suddenly lit up with the glow of several more monitors, each flickering with the image of the beach and that figure.

“No.” Takeru looked up at the screens in horror, pulling away frantically.

The figure on the screen shifted into perfect clarity and Takeru realized what the Kaiser had meant by it being ‘too late’.

“We’re already there.” Takeru whispered.

--

Daisuke blinked awake with a start. It took him less than a second to register that the wonderful warm weight that had been pleasantly resting at his side all night was missing. In that same second, Daisuke was scrambling out of bed in what must have been a personal record.

It was still dark, the air still having a thick early morning feel to it, but Daisuke didn’t need the light to show him that Ken was not in the room. His heart was racing as he shoved his shoes on and bolted out the door, leaving the two groggy digimon behind without so much as a word.

His Ken alarm was blaring at full force and all he cared about was finding and getting to Ken. He would apologize to Wormmon and Veemon later.

Cursing as he raced up the hallway, Daisuke angrily berated himself for not waking up sooner. Judging by the looks of the bed, Ken must have been gone for at least half an hour by now. How could Daisuke have been sleeping so soundly? How could he have ignored that little nagging voice in the back of his head for who knows how long before he had finally let it sink in and wake him up?

“Stupid Daisuke! Stupid stupid stupid!” He paused at the end of the hall just long enough to let his instincts kick in and guide him.

He didn’t know if he was going the right way or not, but he had to trust that his heart would guide him. With each passing second, he could practically feel his time running out.

He took steps at flying leaps, rounded corners at breakneck speed, and sprinted the long halls with a gait that he usually only reserved for the most intense of soccer matches.

When his destination was finally in sight, he knew he was in the right location. After all, the control room was where Ken had once spent all of his time, watching the real world and the Digital World through monitors and rose colored lenses.

Daisuke burst into the control room and froze, gasping for breath and ignoring the dull burn in his calves.

Every monitor in the room was now flickering and hissing with static. Kaiser stood before them with his arms outstretched to his sides and his eyes closed. Just behind him stood Takeru, his face upturned to the main monitor with his eyes open wide in shock. They both appeared to be frozen in place as their bodies flickered with black and white static, keeping sync with the monitors.

Daisuke quickly approached them and reached out. His hand passed through them as if they weren’t even there, causing him to stumble forward slightly as he tried to catch his balance and pull back at the same time.

“Takeru? Kaiser!” They didn’t move. “Hey! Kaiser! Takeru! Don’t do this… Wake up!”

“They can’t here you.” A tired voice cut in from behind him.

Daisuke spun around on his heels, his fists clenched and ready to fight anyone that would dare tell him that he was too late.

His hands fell uselessly to his sides as he found Ken sitting in the main chair, half hidden in the shadows.

Daisuke wondered just how long Ken had been sitting there. He could have sworn that no one else had been in the room when he had first gotten there.

“Ken? What’s wrong with them? What’s going on?” He moved towards the chair determinedly but stopped when Ken held up a hand to still him.

“It took them home.” Ken’s voice was soft and still. There was a quality to it that chilled Daisuke to the core. He suddenly desperately wanted, needed, to see Ken’s face. To look in his eyes and make sure that his partner was still there with him fully.

“I can still see them.” He pointed back to the two flickering forms impatiently.

“What you see is just an imprint. In time, it will fade and there won’t even be a shadow of them.” Ken spoke as if giving a lecture or having a tutoring session with a classmate.

“Ken…” Daisuke cautiously stepped closer, trying to see through the shadows. “What do you mean ‘it took them home’? What happened?”

Ken sighed then casually gestured towards the monitors.

Daisuke looked back at the monitors, the confusion lining his face quickly turning to horror as the static faded and gave way to black murky water and dark sands.

“How do we get them back?” He fought the urge to run to the screens and pound on them until they spit the two boys back out.

“We don’t. Kaiser explained it so eloquently earlier… Or perhaps it was Ken…” Ken seemed to consider this conundrum for a moment before shaking his head and deciding it didn’t matter. He stood and slowly stepped down from the pedestal. “I’d try to explain it all to you, but I don’t think we have the time for me to break it down into itty bitty words.”

“Ken?” Daisuke knew that tone. He knew that voice. Fear gripped him as he turned to watch Ken approach him.

“Let me see if I can’t over simplify it for you…” He stopped just before Daisuke and tilted his head to the side as he thought. “Ryo tried to save me and I repaid him by sucking the life out of him. It seems to be what I’m good at… I wonder if I sucked the life out of Osamu too…. There will be time for Osamu later, though. For now, just know that soon Ken and Kaiser will merge and a doorway will open.”

Daisuke stared as Ken laughed and slowly ran a hand through his hair, messing it up casually before quickly smoothing it back down again. But that wasn’t right. This wasn’t Ken. Not completely.

“Kaiser?” Daisuke looked back towards Ken’s other half in confusion. The chaotic hair was there, but now that he looked closer, the upturned face was so calm and soft… This other boy appeared composed, but his eyes held a wild and dangerous light in them.

“Kaiser passed through. Hope is with him now. He was weak. He knew that if he stayed here any longer, I would win.” Ken walked up to the flickering forms and slowly traced his fingers across the neck of the Kaiser figure, ghosting across the surface before just barely passing through.

“Ken… I think you should sit down. You’re not yourself and I need to get the others so we can figure all of this out, okay?” Daisuke tried to be level headed. To show his leadership and take charge of the situation. Something was clearly wrong with Ken and he would feel much better with Koushiro and the others there to talk him through this.

Ken shot him a sharp look and walked through the now slowly fading figures, coming to a stop just before Daisuke. “You think I’m not myself? How naïve can you be? This is me. Do you think I should be controlled and restrained all the time? That I should always wait and see while he gets to take what he wants? While he takes everything away from me?”

Daisuke held his ground and fixed Ken with a hard look. “What are you talking about?”

“If he is pleasure, what do you think that makes me?” Ken’s eyes hardened and his lips twitched as he fought to maintain that perfectly calm exterior. Daisuke could practically see the storm brewing just under the surface and a light went on in his head.

“Kaiser isn’t here… He’s your other half and he affected you just as you affected him. Without him, you’re just one side…” Kaiser was Ken’s unrestrained ego. He was the side that took without thinking. That sought after pleasure and relished when people paid attention to him.

Daisuke had always just assumed that it was Kaiser that enjoyed when others suffered. That acted out of violence and hate. While Kaiser was often the violent one, it was more from a lack of impulse control than anything else.

Kaiser was playful. He was the one that laughed first. He was unrestrained emotion that often didn’t understand why he was feeling the way he was.

With all of that gone, what was left?

Ken smiled and walked up to the control panel. His fingers flew across the keys and before Daisuke realized what was happening, the monitors each flickered and turned off one by one.

When the last monitor faded to black, the two static forms before them disappeared.

“Do you know why Kaiser wanted Takeru to go with him?” Ken looked at Daisuke coldly.

As far as Daisuke was concerned, they were no longer in ‘the book of Ken’. This was uncharted territory and if he let his guard down even for a moment, he might not ever get to open that book up again.

Daisuke shook his head slightly, not taking his eyes off of Ken. “I don’t know. I… I get the feeling that maybe he has feelings for him.”

“It’s an interesting thought, but not exactly the correct answer. I’ll give you partial credit though.” Ken leaned back against the control panel, watching Daisuke with a cold calculation. “Takeru knows what the Kaiser is. He might not fully understand it, but he has seen it. As much as we both love you, Daisuke… You don’t know Kaiser as well as you think you do. You weren’t meant to help him. Unfortunately for you, you were destined to be stuck with me.”

“So Kaiser does want to be helped then?” Daisuke allowed himself a small glimmer of hope that perhaps Ken and Kaiser would not allow themselves to be swallowed up without a fight.

“I don’t care about what Kaiser wants. He is childish and unable to see the future. Kaiser follows the stronger will, and is unable to make his own fate like I do.” Ken sneered.

“Alright…” Daisuke frowned. “So what about you? Did you pick me because you want me to help you? You want me to go with you when the other world pulls you in?”

Ken tilted his head to the side as he seemed to be considering the proper response. “No. I don’t want to be a part of Kaiser. Despite what I want, the seed wants to be whole… There’s nothing I can do about that… But when the time comes, I will dig the seed out of his cold dead flesh if I must.”

Daisuke clenched his jaw as he felt his stomach stir from such a sickening image. “Answer the question.” He managed to growl out. “Why do you want me if you don’t even care?”

Ken walked up to Daisuke and lightly cupped his cheek with a hand. “Do you think that I would leave you here? That I would face what is about to happen without you there beside me?

Despite himself, Daisuke was surprised with how raw and honest that answer was. Perhaps there was still hope after all. Perhaps there was still some glimmer of the real Ken left inside this piece…

It was a rash judgment, but he didn’t think that he would be allowed the time to tell the others. Trying to explain to them what had happened and what he knew was going to happen… They wouldn’t understand. They’d want every detail and there just wasn’t time…

“I’m ready.” Daisuke swallowed heavily and looked around as if expecting to see swarms of guards suddenly jump out of the shadows to escort him away. “Let’s go.”

Ken smiled. “Daisuke… I knew you’d come with me willingly if I just asked nicely.” He moved to lightly drape his arms over Daisuke’s shoulders. “You would follow me anywhere blindly.”

“I would follow you to hell.” Daisuke calmed his fluttering heart and fixed his eyes with resolve.

“You might not like what you find there…”

The world around them seemed to dull and darken as what little colors there were got sucked out. He could feel Ken’s heart pounding beside his own as Ken clenched his fists into Daisuke’s shirt and pulled him closer. The back of his neck was glowing and Daisuke could feel the heat radiating off of it.

He had seen Ken access the seed once before as he had ripped a hole in reality to banish Daemon to the negative zone. Back then, Ken had been terrified and unsure of himself. It had taken all that he had just to open the gate and keep control.

Now, though Daisuke could still feel the way the seed burned and twisted inside the other boy, Ken was in full control.

The room around them faded to gray and Daisuke could hear the waves growing closer as they started to pass through the gate.

He had a moment of wondering if he would ever see this or the real world again before he realized that there was a chance he might not ever even get to see the real Ken again.

“Daisuke…” He could hear Hikari’s voice calling to him. “Daisuke!”

He looked up in time to see Hikari standing in the doorway of the control room.

Daisuke wanted to call out to her and tell her that everything would be fine. To tell her not to worry about Takeru. To assure her and the others that he would do everything he could to make sure that they all made it home in one piece.

He drew breath, but the look in her eyes stopped him. “You have to find him!”

The gate started to close and the control room slowly darkened around them.

Her voice drifted across the dimensions as everything crashed in on them. “He’s buried in the sand! He’s not two, he’s three!”  

Daisuke had enough time to wonder who she was talking about before the world around him erupted in a blaze of fire.