Chapter Text
The Digimon Kaiser, Ken Ichijouji, was not having a good day. You know you aren't having a good day when one moment you're in the middle of a tough battle with the Chosen Children and the next you find yourself opening your eyes to pitch darkness and lying on cold wet rocks with no idea how you got there.
What the hell? He sat up and every muscle in his body screamed in protest. It felt as if he had fallen quite a way but nothing seemed to be broken. Where am I and how did I get here?
The last thing he remembered was fighting the chosen children, then the world had... Exploded? No more like imploded. Well whatever had happened he needed to figure out where he was, It felt like underground somewhere – though that told him little. The Digital World was huge.
"Wormmon!" he yelled. "Wormmon!"
"It's no good," someone said from behind him.
Ken suppressed a groan. He knew that voice all too well.
"What do you mean, Motomiya?" he snapped as he turned towards him He couldn't see the other boy but he noticed a faint glowing light in that direction.
"Our digimon and D3s aren't here. In fact as far as I can tell there's only the three of us here."
"Hikari's here as well. I think she's still unconscious." Daisuke appeared as he came closer, he was holding something luminescent.. "And I found some glowing fungi. It probably wasn't really wise to pick them but I needed a light source quickly and there wasn't anything else."
"Glowing? So that means we're underground?" Well that confirmed his suspicions.
"Yes, we're in a cave. A large one thankfully." For some reason brief thread of self-mocking irony threaded through Daisuke's voice before he returned to his previous clipped tone. "I can't see any way out close by but I haven't explored properly yet." He paused. "Hikari's on a ledge just above us. I was about to climb up to see if she is all right. I don't suppose that you'd care to join me?"
Ken wasn't sure why but he didn't even think about what to do. He just clambered up the cave wall after Daisuke. When they reached the ledge where Hikari was lying Daisuke placed the bundle of glowing fungi down and prodded it. It reacted to his touch by brightening enough for the two boys to get a good look at her.
The sight of her injuries made Ken gasp. There was a large bruise on her temple and her right forearm was twisted at an unnatural angle – obviously broken. For just a second his mind froze in shocked realisation. He had always assumed that this game would have some sort of player preservation protocols in it and if he killed his opponents they would be booted from the Digital World not actually die. It looked like he was wrong because he had no doubt that Hikari's life was in real danger. If they got out of this situation he would like to have a word with whoever designed this place. Games were not supposed to be dangerous. At the very least he was going to have to rethink his strategy so as not to risk killing anyone. For now he had more important things to do. He took a breath, removed his cloak and began to tear it into strips.
"Motomiya, do you have anything I can use as a splint? We need to set this arm as best we can."
Daisuke stared at him. "Why?"
"Because we can't move her until it's stabilised and we need to get her back to the Real World as soon as possible. She needs a doctor and quickly!"
"I can see that. I mean why do you care?" Even as he spoke Daisuke was rifling through the inside of his jacket and produced a long wooden ruler. "Will this do?"
"It'll have to do." Ken took it and then reached for his whip. He wrapped the flail around the handle to make it even more inflexible. The he paused and gritted his teeth against what would happen next. As he started to push the arm back into place as best he could without risking more damage the unconscious girl screamed. He cringed internally but refused to let it show. He couldn't let his adversary know how confused he was at the moment.. He quickly used the strips of cloth to secure the two makeshift splints to her arm.
A second, quieter groan from her alerted him to the fact that Hikari was waking up. Unfortunately she tried to sit up before either boy could stop her, though both of them moved to do so. Concussion and sitting up do not mix at all well so, of course, she began to vomit violently. Ken was amazed to find that he was the one who held her shoulders gently, guided her so she would spew on the floor rather than her clothes and instinctively murmured quiet reassurances to her. The stress and pain of the situation was obviously too much for because as soon as she finished she passed out in his arms. He checked she was still breathing before gently placing her in the best approximation of the recovery position her arm would allow.
"You confuse me," Daisuke said. "You behave like a monster, you run away from home without so much as a goodbye leaving your parents worried sick and then, just when I'm all primed to hate you, you'll suddenly turn around and do something that proves that you are human after all."
Ken considered this and latched on to the only thing he actually had an answer for. "Worried sick about me?" He laughed bitterly. "All they care about is losing their genius meal ticket." Ken blinked in confusion. Why am I telling him this? He couldn't seem to stop though. "No one cares about me. Not the real me. Everyone wants me to be my brother." Dammit! He really did not need Daisuke Motomiya knowing this.
"No," Daisuke said thoughtfully. "I think they care about you. I've seen them on TV and that's not just grief that their meal ticket is gone. They may not have realised it until you were gone but it's YOU they are worried about not some clone." A strange expression crossed his face. "Now if I didn't go home it's possible that my parents wouldn't even notice I was gone. Jun would notice but not them" He snorted wryly. "At least she doesn't blame me for whatever happened to Yuki."
"Who is Yuki and what happened to them?" Ken stared at the leader of the Chosen Children, His eyes must be getting used to the dim light because he could see the tears that Daisuke blinked away and tried to hide.
"Yukino was my cousin on my father's side," Daisuke said. "She was a couple of years older than me and was always at our place and was almost like another sister to me and Jun. She developed Leukaemia a few years back and I was a match but the bone marrow transplant failed and she relapsed. Then she just disappeared from the hospital. The police thought she must have run away but she couldn't even stand by then and she was just gone." He shook his head. "My parents throw the fact that she would still be here if the transplant hadn't failed whenever I manage to upset them. Jun defends me as best she can but why do they blame me? It wasn't my fault!" He shouted the last but and it echoed back from the cave walls in a roar of sound.
"They blame you for an accident of biology?" Ken was shocked. "That's ridiculous!"
"Exactly! So don't try and blame your behaviour on how bad your life is, Ken. It's not an excuse. It may be an explanation but it's not an excuse."
Ken stared at him then bowed his head. "I think that I'd better find an exit." He decided to change the subject quickly. He didn't want to think about this. "Give me half the fungi and you stay here with Yagami. If she vomits..."
"That's what the recovery position is for, isn't it," Daisuke said drily. "To stop her choking if she vomits, but of course I'll keep an eye on her. She's my friend."
Ken just nodded and began to pick his way down from the ledge. It was only as he reached the main floor that he realised that he'd forgotten to tell Daisuke not to call him Ken.
***
At the site of the interrupted fight a group of very confused Chosen Children and their digimon were searching for two missing friends and one missing enemy. They had been in the middle of another fight when dark vortexes had manifested around the three missing children before collapsing inwards, disappearing along with their victims. All that had been left were the three unconscious digimon and the vanished kids' D3s. What was worse was when a few moments later Tailmon degenerated to Plotmon. There was no doubt about it. This was very bad.
"It's no good." Takeru said after they had searched everywhere nearby. "We'll have to go home and tell the others what's happened and come up with a cover story. Maybe Koushiro recorded something that will help us figure out what's going on here. Somebody bring their digimon and D3s."
"Even Ken's?" Miyako asked in surprise.
"Especially Ken's I think." Iori said thoughtfully. "For one thing Wormmon may know something about this."
"If he ever wakes up," Miyako said sourly.
"If he doesn't it will still us something. The digimon share our energy so if they don't wake up it means there's a problem with their human partner, right, Takeru? That's why it's so bad that Tailmon has degenerated."
Takeru, who was holding the unconscious Plotmon, just nodded and bit his lip with obvious worry.
"Another thing to consider," Iori added. "Is that while we do have to concentrate on finding out what happened here and getting them back we can't afford to let this opportunity go to waste. Koushiro might be able to come up with a more efficient way to combat Ken if he studies his digivice."
"I never thought of that," Miyako conceded as she picked up Wormmon and Ken's digivice. "What do you think happened?"
The younger child grimaced. "I have no idea."
***
I feel different, Ken thought to himself as he explored the cave trying to find an exit. And my neck isn't hurting. That thought made him pause in surprise. It had been hurting for so long that he had almost forgotten that it did. He'd got used to it but he certainly noticed the absence of pain now and raised a hand thoughtfully to his neck as he carried on his explorations. Maybe Motomiya is a painkiller for me. He chuckled to himself at that thought. I hope that Wormmon is okay. Now that thought brought him to another abrupt halt. Why in the world am I worrying about a character in a game? It wasn't the first time that he'd caught himself developing a bond with the little, green digimon but for once no voice rose out of nowhere to tell him that it was unhealthy to care about something that didn't exist.
Come to think of it whenever he heard that voice his neck hurt worse and he usually did something nasty to Wormmon immediately afterwards. He also had a vague memory of promising someone not to listen that voice. "Curiouser and curiouser," he murmured out loud as he checked another tunnel. It didn't obviously lead to an exit but it didn't seem to be blocked like the last two had either. He was about to move on when some sort of blade was prodded against his back. It tingled in an odd way making think it was an energy weapon rather than metal.
"Do not move, human," A cold, dead voice said. "Or you will die."
Ken froze instantly, somehow resisting the urge to snap at them and ask if they knew who they we dealing with. Common sense dictated that he shouldn't piss off whatever digimon was holding a weapon to his back. "Especially not now he knew that he could actually die. "Who are you?"
"Ah, of course. You don't remember me. I am Metal Fantomon and with me stand an army of other digimon." This was not good. The digimon's very name left a cold, unexplained lump in Ken's stomach. "Make ready to come with me or face your worst nightmares in my Soul Predator attack." Great just great. From what it had said he knew this digimon from somewhere but he had no idea where, except that his guts were telling him it was not a good thing.
"How can I make ready to go anywhere when there's weapon pressed to my back?" He asked in what he hoped was a reasonable tone.
The only reply was a cold chuckle but the weapon was removed and then a strange purple light filled the cave. It was so bright it left Ken blinking while his eyes adjusted. Once it had he looked behind him to see that the light was coming from Metal Fantomon's scythe. The sight of the cyborg ghost only increased the leaden fear in his gut. He definitely knew this digimon. He looked away quickly towards where he had left Daisuke and Hikari. They were also surrounded by digimon of all shapes and sizes. It seemed Metal Fantomon had not been kidding about his army.
Two of them were already dumping Hikari on to a stretcher roughly. Whoever had sent these digimon apparently didn't need rings to control them and they had known about Hikari's condition. This alarmed him because there was nothing in the actions of the creatures that had captured them that spoke of concern.
***
Elsewhere in the caves a teenage girl observed the events on a monitor. There was a scowl on her face as she chewed on her nails nervously.
"Why did you have to drop them so far away from the base?" she asked. "And from such a height? If Yagami had been killed it would have ruined everything!" She took a breath as the Phascomon next to her leaned against her and rumbled soothingly. She scratched the demon koala digimon's ears and relaxed slightly. "Well no harm done, I suppose, but what went wrong?"
"Something interfered and tried to stop the teleport," the boy who was standing behind her said. "It blew the circuits as well which is why I can't just teleport them again."
"Tsk!" She turned to look at him. "That means someone knows we got back in, Denbe. We have a leak."
"Or this Digital World has gotten better at security," another teenage girl lounged nearby. "We did rather force our way through the crest barrier."
"Airi is right, Chiharu," Denbe said. "They might have detected that. Still it won't hurt to look for a leak. Most digimon don't love us after all." He turned to look at the screen Chiharu was watching. "You know I thought the spore might really have changed him and we might actually be able to recruit him, but no, block the signal and these the same as he ever was."
Airi made an amused sound. "Now there's a headache I really don't need."
Chiharu gave a choking laugh at that but Denbe just looked at Airi in confusion.
"What do you mean?" he asked. "Why would a new ally give you a headache?"
"Don't worry about it," Chiharu said. "Airi's just being a comedienne. Just carry on getting the systems online, please."
"I'm waiting for some things to reboot." He folded his arms. "I know we need Yagami alive but we should just kill Motomiya and Ichijouji now if we aren't going to attempt to convert them. They remain a danger as long as they live and oppose us."
"Without their digimon or digivices?" Chiharu shook her head. "They are no danger to anyone." She looked over at Airi. "Is our guests' accommodation ready?"
"Of course." Airi smirked at her. "This is going to be fun."
"I still don't like this," Denbe said.
Chiharu tilted her head at him. "You are such a pessimist sometimes."
"That's my job, Chiharu," he said. "That's my job."