A.N.: So, this is indeed the long-promised companion to Metanoia. With that in mind, this is clearly the best point for me to say that you absolutely do NOT need to have read Metanoia to understand anything in Renascent. Frankly, in many respects this is the story which makes Metanoia make sense. If you love mind screws, go read it first. If not, feel free to skip it altogether.

Also, this story was inspired and started thanks to the Digimon Bang 2016, which is something you absolutely should go check out. There are some pretty awesome stories and art hanging out on Tumblr under that tag.

renascent - adjective: being reborn; springing again into being or vigour

Frankly, capturing Takeru and his partner had been so easy it was almost insulting. No, forget 'almost' - it was insulting. Deeply. These were his opponents? After months of thwarting his plans, all it had taken was a simple act of misdirection, and they had scattered to his false distress signals. Scuttling off on their would-be rescue missions like the brainless insects they were. And of course, by themselves they were easy pickings. Pathetic.

His mood was soured even further by the fact that it was the blond who had attended the signal where the trap was located, and not the ever-irritating Motomiya. All that effort, and he'd wound up with a second-rate prize. Still. He would do.

The Kaiser watched the others reunite from his monitor room, waiting for the oh-so-satisfying moment they realised they were one down. It certainly took them long enough. Something to mention to his bargaining chip when he had a moment. At least there was some passing amusement to be had in letting him know he was so easily forgotten.

The rectangular device he had confiscated from Takeru along with his digivice lit up, and he flipped it open to read a succession of messages requesting that he contact his friends. Well. Time to put a stop to that.

::Your friend will not be returning all the while my demands are unmet. Surrender your digivices and digimon, and concede defeat to the Digimon Kaiser::

Of course, with Motomiya still on the loose he knew there was very little chance they would accept his offer. No doubt they would attempt a rescue - multiple rescues - before even considering that they had lost. Certainly they had before, and that had only been for a digimon . If they got so worked up over a few disposable lines of computer code, doubtless they'd pull out all the stops for a friend of theirs.

How utterly irksome.

Rescue parties would be even more of an inconvenience than their usual disturbances. He had absolutely no intention of putting up with that sort of nonsense. But - particularly as Motomiya was still around to infect them with his witless determination - his demands alone would not be enough. No. It would take something more to convince them of the futility of their resistance.

The idea had been in the back of his mind - he allowed himself a slight smile at the unintentional joke - for some time now. He wasn't sure precisely when the thought had first occurred to him, but it couldn't have been long after he first realised the irritating tenacity of his opponents. Now, in a way it seemed an inevitability. That it had been intended since the fateful email had arrived, proclaiming that the seed in his neck provided him with unlimited potential, should he but tap into it. That it would be the ultimate demonstration of his tactical supremacy.

In his early days as Kaiser, he had experienced momentary self-doubt - were his accomplishments lessened by the assistance of the seed? Well, mastery of it would prove beyond certainty where the credit was due. It was a tool for him to use and exploit , not a crutch. And really, it had been a simple matter to copy it, and make the necessary alterations to its structure.

And what better motivation for those…those insects to leave his world, than one of their own friends instructing them to do so in person?

Everything was going perfectly until Takeru screamed.

He'd expected some sort of reaction, and screaming was one of the possibilities he had accounted for - certainly there had been enough of that over the last few days. Still, those earlier screams had been filled with rage and frustration. Entirely expected, really. Didn't all caged animals rail against captivity?

But the scream which erupted after he pressed the transfer device to the back of the boy's neck, silencing his petty protests…that wasn't a scream of fury, or anger, or even fear. It was pain - pure, unadulterated agony, and it shook him to the core.

"What…what's going on?" he cried, as though Wormmon would know. But it had been Wormmon - his useless, pathetic assistant - who had been so unusually outspoken against this plan. And as he asked again, he belatedly realised he wasn't really asking the little digimon anyway . He was thinking out loud, wondering what in all the worlds was happening to his captive.

Takeru was convulsing; straining against the restraints on his arms and legs. Something about him was changing , too. Not enough to be particularly noticeable any more, but in those first few seconds it had washed out over the boy like a wave, turning his skin an almost imperceptible shade greyer.

This was not part of his plan.

The screams continued for an almost eternal ninety-three seconds, and then stopped. Abruptly. Somehow, the silence was even worse.

For the first time in as long as he could clearly remember, he felt a sliver of uncertainty about what he was doing. The motionless body in front of him was deeply unnerving, and all of a sudden he realised he wasn't entirely sure what he expected the seed to have done. Certainly it would force Takeru to ally with himself, but… there was something of a haze in his mind over the exact method by which it was supposed to have achieved this.

"Is that it?" he wondered aloud. "Is it over now?"

Takeru's eyes snapped open, and the boy looked directly at him. There wasn't even a trace of fear in his expression. They stared at each other for what felt like forever, although the security feed later confirmed that it had only been twenty-six seconds. Then Takeru smirked.

"Well?" Takeru said, quite calmly. "Are you going to release me, or do I have to ask your snivelling partner instead?"

The Kaiser scowled, forcing his uncertainties into the deepest recesses of his mind.

"If you think me careless enough to do that straight away, you are even more foolish than I had believed," he snapped. He was the one in control here. Former prisoners did not get to dictate terms.

The smirk didn't waver for a moment. "I might have thought you confident in your own plan ," Takeru remarked, far calmer than anyone strapped to a table had a right to be. "But feel free to be a coward if it helps."