Revenge of the Kaiser

Chapter 12: The fractured Heart

The sun had barely risen when she awoke from an easy night's sleep. No thoughts of what would happen to the Digidestined kept her awake tossing and turning and worrying.

But still, she wanted to see them, wanted them to see her. She wanted to see their faces when she walked up to them and they knew, in no uncertain terms, they failed to save her.

Kari showered and dressed quickly, wanting to go down to the dungeon before Kaiser was awake. She hummed on her way down, tapping her fingers against the wall as she walked.

They were in worse condition then she would have pictured; dirty broken shells of people sat curled into themselves, waiting for anything to take their minds off this imprisonment. She was surprised that most of them were even awake.

"Wow, look at you," Kari offered, catching the attention of the dazing teens and stirring the sleeping ones.

"Kari," Tai whispered, shakily getting to his feet. He was afraid, unsure of how she would act. But he was happy knowing that she was, in the simplest terms, okay.

Blackwormmon scurried to the door where Kari stood. "Let them out," he pleaded, "he'll listen if you tell him to send him home. They're no threat here anymore."

Kari kneeled down and reached her hand through the bars, patting Blackwormmon on the head. "I can't," she answered simply, "Kaiser wants his revenge."

"Kari," Ken said, but she paid no attention to him.

Look at him a voice pleaded from the back of her mind. Please, let me see him!

Kari chuckled aloud at the miniscule pleas, more determined than before to ignore the blue haired teen.

"Don't worry," she said, patting Blackwormmon again, "nothing is going to happen to you. I'll make sure Kaiser doesn't take his anger out on you."

"Why me?"

"Because you were willing to help me," she answered simply. "But thinking about it, I might have him keep Matt around, he's fun to play with. Aren't you, Matt?"

Matt looked away, refusing to acknowledge her taunts. "What?" Kari asked, standing and leaning her arms against the bars, "didn't you tell them? Didn't you tell TK what an honorable brother you are?"

TK frowned, confused. He stepped forward, able to move freely because the chains were never reattached. He put his hand on Kari's. "Snap out of it," he whispered, staring into her eyes, looking for the goodness in her.

Kari smirked, pulling away from his touch. "I'm afraid it's no longer that simple. Besides, I like this feeling." Stop it.

"Kari," Ken tried again.

"I have better things to do than waste my time entertaining you," she said harshly, speaking mainly to TK, "I'll see you around."

"Kari!" Ken shouted.

Turn around! Look at him! Listen to me damn it!

Kari continued walking without pausing to look back.

Tai dug the heels of his palms into his eyes. "I can't believe it. I can't believe what he's done to her."

TK collapsed against the bars. "Matt, what was Kari talking about?"

Matt paled at the question. He was hoping beyond hope that he wasn't going to be asked to elaborate. How could he explain or justify what happened? "I told you, she came here. She pretended to be her old self, tricked me."

"There's more," TK pressed, "I can see it in your eyes."

Matt sighed, pulling his legs closer to himself. "We…kissed."

Both Ken and TK were about to question him, but Tai beat them to it. "What did you say?" he growled.

"I didn't mean for it to happen! She hugged me and said she was sorry and she was scared. Then she kissed me, and, I don't know, I didn't think, I just reacted. And then next thing I know she's laughing at me and calling me pathetic."

"You are pathetic," TK concurred. He looked over at Ken, whose eyes were dark and his fists clenched.

Matt nodded, feeling three sets of eyes glaring at him. He couldn't look at any of them.

Stop walking! Turn around and set them free! LISTEN TO ME!

Kari's body stopped moving, coming to a jerky halt. Her head ached intensely, enough to make her lean against the wall. "Don't bother," she spoke aloud, addressing the goodness locked within her, "they'll be dead soon and you'll lose any power you have over this body. It belongs to me now. Accept the darkness and give up."

Her body shivered, and she dropped to the ground. Grabbing her head in pain, Kari gasped aloud. "Stop fighting it!"

No! the voice countered, growing stronger and louder. This is my body! The core of Kari's light fought the darkness surrounding it, gaining some control of her body.

Quickly, before the darkness could stop her, Kari tore the bandage off her ankle and began to dig at the cut it covered, tearing it open. "Stop that!" her voice commanded, panicking. But she kept going, covering her fingers in blood until she could grab the chip with her nails. Yanking it out, Kari winced in pain, but held it up triumphantly.

A shudder ran through her body. The darkness, without the chip as a base, ran amok within her, trying to find something to grasp onto.

Kari's skin felt hot, and her head blinded her with pain. She rose to her feet, using the wall to keep from collapsing, blood dripping out from her ankle as the injected darkness was forced from her body.

Staggering forward, Kari tried to get herself together. The pain was bringing tears to her eyes, making it even more difficult to focus. Her injured ankle refused to support any of her weight, at least not without making her suck in air sharply to keep for screaming.

There was a noise behind her, and Kari managed to half turn around to look. Turning her body away from the wall, combined with the shock of what she was seeing, or rather, the blurred image in front of her, caused her to fall to the ground, landing on her hip with a thud.

The darkness had not dissolved into the air as she would have expected (if her head would allow her to even consider it). Instead, it was gathering together to fit the form of a short brunette with red tinted eyes.

"Well, this is convenient," Kaiserin spoke, holding up her palms and watching as they solidified. "Sharing a body with you, your little voice nagging about everything I do, God it's irritating. But now," Kaiserin smirked, seeing the horror etched into Kari's features, "now I don't need you."

She moved quickly, lunging forward and slapping Kari across the face with the back of her hand. The force knocked Kari sideways, causing her head to bang against the ground. Kaiserin grabbed onto the front of Kari's shirt and pulled the battered girl to her feet. Her fingers wrapped around Kari's throat, blocking any air from entering her lungs.

Kari gasped, trying to inhale, trying to gather enough focus to make her arms move and force the Kaiserin's hands away.

But things were already foggy and the pain in her head demanded more attention than the cry for air could match. Slowly, as if the world had begun to run in slow motion, the severity of the pain waned and everything went black.

Kaiserin loosened her grip as soon as Kari was unconscious. She needed to keep Kari alive, for now, as a precaution. She let Kari fall forward into her, balancing her weight evenly in her arms and dragged Kari to the first room she could find.

Backing into the room, Kaiserin let Kari fall from her arms into a heap on the floor. She didn't know what the room was for, if anything, or if she would remember exactly which room she had dumped Kari in.

He hadn't woken as early as usual, and thus he decided to wait until later to shower. He wanted to see his prize, to have her look him in the eyes without fear or contempt. He got ready quickly, exiting his room a few minutes later, heading to her room almost at a jog.

She was standing at the window, staring out from between the bars. She glanced back when the door entered, smiling at Kaiser before turning to look out the window again.

"You're up," Kaiser observed.

"Mmhmm," Kaiserin answered absently. She turned away and walked to Kaiser, lifting her arms up and around his neck when she reached him. "I've been thinking,"

"Oh?"

"About what we should do about our captives."

"And what did you decide?"

A smile spread across Kaiserin's face. "We should kill them. One at a time, make the others watch. They won't know who will be next, or when, or how they'll die."

"All of them?"

"Naturally."

"Even Tai?"

"Of course."

Kaiser frowned. He knew that his chip was powerful, but this seemed to be more evil than Kari would be capable of. He loved the idea that she cared nothing for them, but her suggesting that they be murdered, it seemed…too good to be true. Something wasn't right. He stared suspiciously at her, looking for any sign that it was a trick.

"What?" Kaiserin asked, pushing against him with enough force to make his feet shuffle backwards until he could feel the mattress against the back of his thighs. She pushed him down onto the bed in one swift motion.

The act of pushing him down was in itself very arousing, but when she climbed on top of him, straddling him just below his hips, Kaiser was consumed by his desire for her. Her grabbed her forearms and pulled her forward, capturing her bottom lip between his teeth.

They kissed deeply, heavily, trying to convey a complicated message with only their lips. Kaiser slid his hand down Kaiserin's leg, feeling her smooth skin all the way down to her ankle…

Kaiser's eyes shot open. He grabbed onto Kaiserin's arms and threw her off of him.

"What the hell—?"

"Shut up," he interrupted, grabbing her other leg and studying that ankle, too. There was nothing, no bandage, no cut, no scar.

She was half off the bed already, so she shook her ankle free and found her way back onto her feet.

"Where is it?" he growled.

"Where's what?" she questioned back, smiling sweetly.

"The chip," he snarled, taking a step back to look over her with critical eyes.

"Oh that silly little thing? You don't have to worry about that, promise." She took a step toward him but he backed away again.

"You're not her," he realized after a moment, "you're not Kari."

Kaiserin laughed at him, mocking his shock and anger. "Oh Kaiser, for someone so smart, you can be quite stupid. Did you honestly think that Kari wouldn't be able to expel the darkness from her body? Ken did it, and he had a lot less power than she does."

"Where is she?" he demanded, furious.

Kaiserin shrugged. "Does it matter? Isn't this what you wanted? I'm just like her only I'm yours willingly. Isn't it better this way? Don't you realize that I'm the only way that this is real? Kari will never love you no matter what you do to her. Deep down she'll always despise you. Her heart will always belong to Ken—!"

Kaiser struck Kaiserin across the face hard enough to knock her to the ground. "Where is she!?"

She spat blood out onto the floor. "She'll be dead soon, I'd imagine. It took more energy then she could afford to use to get me out of her body. Forget her."

"You'll regret this," Kaiser promised, grabbing hold of her arm and forcing her to her feet. He half-dragged Kaiserin down a winding path of hallways, ignoring her taunts and protests.

Kaiserin gasped as she realized where he was taking her. "You can't leave me down here," she screamed, trying to pr his fingers off of her.

"You'll have company," Kaiser mocked, signaling a guard to open the cell where the Digidestined were held. "Try to play nice," he added after throwing her in on her ass.

"Wait!" she demanded, scrambling to her feet and grabbing at him through the cell. "You can't do this!"

Kaiser glared at her and stepped out of her range. He turned without another word and left her standing in the cell, arm outstretched, trying to grab onto something that would free her.

"Kari?" Tai spoke nervously, "what's going on?"

Kaiserin turned to face Tai, scrunching her face up in disgust. "Do not call me that." She sauntered over to him and sat down in front of him. "What's going on? You let your little sister get caught by the forces of evil, and now you've lost her forever." She smiled.

"Kari, stop," Sora pleaded, seeing the pain on Tai's face.

Kaiserin looked over her shoulder and saw Matt. She scooted over until she was right next to him, pressing her side against him. "I think I'm going to suggest that you stay alive the longest," she placed her hand on his knee, "I can only imagine the angst you'll have after watching T.K. die; especially since he's going to die hating you."

Her words struck Matt like physical blows. "Shut up! Just shut up!" he screamed, rising to his feet, fists clenched in anger. "I was stupid and I didn't think. I get it! I'm not going to sit there and let you make me feel worse than I already do. So shut the hell up!"

Kaiserin half shrugged, surprised and somewhat amused by his reaction. She got up and walked over to TK, who was leaning against the wall near Ken. Just one look in his eyes told her that she could break him easily.

"And here stands my brave, sweet TK. My knight in shining armor. You never will give up hope, will you? Ken kidnaps me and you nearly lose your life trying to get me back, and I repay you by Ken, the same guy who nearly killed us all. We'd be together, you and me, if Ken hadn't gotten in the way. We wouldn't be here now if it weren't for him. We'd be somewhere in our world, together, your arms would be wrapped around me…"

"That isn't Kari," Ken said as he rose to his feet beside her. "She's the equivalent to what Kaiser is." He stared her down harshly. "She's only a manifestation of dark energy kicked out of the host body."

"When you put it like that it doesn't sound good at all. I'm Kaiserin, an improved form of that little twit."

"Where is she?"

"Well, if Kaiser doesn't find her soon, she'll be pushing daisies on the other side of the light, if you catch my drift." She laughed, enjoying their pain immensely.

He was nearly out of breath from going from room to room across more than half the base. It was then that when he began rebuilding his empire there would only be the necessities. All of these empty rooms were a useless hassle.

He had found the bloody chip a few halls back, and there had been little spots of blood here and there. But he did not know which direction they were supposed to lead him.

Kaiser's hand fell upon the handle of the next door in the hall. Kaiser took in a deep breath of air before turning it open. Kaiser's eyes widened.

Kari lay on the floor in the middle of the room. Her hair covered a large portion of her face, which was paler than usual. Her breathing was shallow and her body shook with cold. The cut on her ankle had yet to stop bleeding and a small pool of blood had formed on the floor. Her body was too weak from forcing out the dark energy to close the wound.

He picked her up delicately and carried her to the Control Room. After cleaning and wrapping her ankle, he turned away from her. Fury could be read on his features; someone was going to pay for this.

He quickly typed a command in his computer before calmly walking back to the dungeon with quick, deliberate steps.

When he reached the dungeon entrance Meramon was standing at attention. "You summoned me, Master?"

Kaiser nodded, walking by the fire digimon and signaling for him to follow. Meramon followed until Kaiser stopped again.

He stood in front of the cell where the Digidestined were being kept. Kaiserin had gotten sick of them and was sitting by their D-3's, trying to find some amusement. She dropped Yolei's D-3 on the floor and jumped to her feet when she saw Kaiser on the other side of the bars.

The smile on her face quickly faded as the cell opened and Meramon walked through. "Fireball," his voice sizzled as he gathered fire between his palms and shot it out at Kaiserin.

She screamed as the flames hit her. Kaiser watched, satisfied, as her body began to break up into data. "Kaiser…" she whispered as her body fell apart, "she'll never love you…"

Davis stared in horror. "How could you do that?" he demanded, eyeing Kaiser with a fearful awe. "You're a monster!"

Meramon stepped out of the cell and bowed to the Kaiser. "That is all," Kaiser spoke, dismissing him. His eyes turned on Davis.

All the Digidestined had stood before the last bits of Kaiserin were falling to the ground. Kaiser stepped inside, wanting to take some of his rage out on them.

Suddenly, Tai lunged at him and punched him square in the jaw. Kaiser gasped, seeing the ankle chain snapped in half, giving Tai the ability to move freely.

"How…" he began, before Davis took a shot at him.

Ken ducked by Kaiser and ran out of the cell. Kaiser went to follow after him but Yolei's foot somehow managed to get tangled around his ankle and they both went down. "We'll keep him busy," she shouted after Ken.

Ken saw that Blackwormmon was trailing right behind him. They ran to Kari's room, only to find it empty. Ken pounded on the door, inhaled deeply, and began running to the Control Room.

"Kari!" he breathed, seeing her lying on the table. He ran to her and touched her forehead with his hand. "Kari, please wake up." He took her hand into his and gave a gentle squeeze.

She stirred, slowly at first, but the sound of his voice seemed to lead her back to consciousness. "Ken?" she whispered, blinking several times.

"Oh God, Kari, I'm glad you're alright."

"Where is he?"

Ken's eyes betrayed him. She saw the fear in his eyes and knew that Kaiser was with the others. She tried to stand, but her body was too weak to support her. "Don't move," Ken chastised, wrapping his arm around her waist as she gracelessly slipped off the table.

"I have to go, or he'll kill them."

There were a series of yells and groans of pain echoing down the corridor. Kaiser came running into the control room, the Digidestined following close behind. TK jumped on his back, but Kaiser easily threw the blonde off.

"They're free," Kari said, watching as one after another her friends tried to take Kaiser down. Even Sora and Yolei were offering their fists and feet to try and slow him.

"Turns out the Armadillomon can eat through just about anything. He snapped our chains."

Kari looked down at Ken's ankle, making herself dizzy as she did so. A metal ring was clasped around his pant leg. Looking around she saw that they all sported the same accessory.

Joe came stumbling into the room, carrying in both his hands his bag full to the brim with the eggs and digivices the others had not thought to get.

Ken and Kaiser locked eyes. "Get away from her," Kaiser growled, elbowing Tai in the face without looking at him, "she's mine."

Ken put himself in front of Kari. She grabbed onto the back of his shirt, partly for support, partly to keep him from leaving to confront Kaiser.

Ken looked around him. The rest of the Digidestined were losing their strength and a group of Vegiemon entered behind Joe and began to tie down the ones that happened to be on the floor. One of them held a squirming Armadillomon above his head. Joe was looking side to side, his limbs frozen in fear.

Soon only Ken was free to face Kaiser. He stepped forward, forcing Kari to drop her hands. She slid to the ground without his support. "This ends now," he said with a clear, determined voice.

"That it does," Kaiser agreed, grinning.

Ken went at Kaiser with his fist raised. His movements were too slow, however; his body was weakened by hunger and exhaustion. Only his desire to save Kari and everyone else drove him to land a solid punch in Kaiser's stomach.

It didn't take long for Kaiser to knock Ken face first to the ground. Kaiser shook his head, disappointed. "You would think our final face off would be more dramatic," he said, standing over Ken. He grabbed a handful of Ken's hair and yanked his head up. He pulled out a knife from his side pocket and held it against Ken's throat.

"No!" Kari screamed. Tears began to build up in her eyes. "Please," she whispered, defeated, "I'll do anything."

"I know you will," Kaiser sneered, keeping the knife pressed against Ken's throat. "I'm just making sure no one tries to interfere."

Kari's eyes widened. "No!" she screamed again, trying to get on her feet, trying to run to Ken. She didn't make it more than a few steps before crashing back down again.

With his back turned to him, Kaiser did not see Joe sink down in an attempt to keep his now shaking bag in his hands. A beam of light shot out of it. Everyone stayed silent as YukimiBotamon fell to the ground. The light followed the round digimon as she bounced and landed as Nyaromon and then again to become Salamon. Salamon was Gatomon seconds later.

Kaiser saw shock pass over Kari and he paused for a second. A rush of excruciating pain erupted from his back. The knife fell and Kaiser backed away. Both he and Ken turned to see what had happened.

Angewomon hovered in the air; her bow was still raised in her hands.

Kaiser understood. She had hit him with her Celestial Arrow.

Holy power.

He coughed and sputtered for a moment. He could feel his body being deleted. Ken had kicked his way back onto his feet and run to Kari.

As long as there was some life in him he would not allow Ken near her. Kaiser ran at them, his back hunched because of the pain. He fell just short of reaching the two of them. Ken had helped her to her feet already.

He reached his arm out and touched the top of her shoe, trying to grab onto her. Kari pulled her foot away.

"I can't lose," he shouted, even as his body was breaking off into data. "I won't—!" The voice cut off as Kaiser burst into data.

"Is it over?" Joe asked.

"Yes," Ken answered.

The Vegiemon looked around at each other and simultaneously started running away.

Ken wrapped his arms around Kari. "Let's go home."

She nodded, too overwhelmed to speak. It was over. It was finally over.

Izzy dusted himself off. He walked over to the main wall and began typing.

"Izzy, what are you doing?" Sora asked, speaking for everyone.

"Opening the portal so we can go home. Obviously."

"But what about our digimon," Cody interjected, sobering the group's mood.

"Let me handle that," Angewomon offered. She flew over the eggs and sprinkled sparkling light on them before de-digivolving to Gatomon.

The group exhaled together as the eggs began hatching and their digimon began play fighting with each other to get out of the bag and bounced to their human partners.

"Now you can go home," Blackwormmon said.

"What about you?" Kari asked, "what are you going to do?"

"Fix things that Kaiser has interfered with, to start. And then…I suppose I don't know yet. I'll find somewhere I belong, I'm sure."

"Oh, I just remembered." Ken dug his hand into his pocket. "I think this is yours."

"My necklace," Kari said, smiling. "Thank you." She lifted herself up as well as she could and kissed Ken's lips.

Blackwormmon made a face. He really didn't understand humans.

… … … … … … … … … …

Well, that's it. I know, I should have finished a year ago. I said I would finish sooner, but for the past 6 months now I've been having a problem with my stomach where I can't eat without it hurting afterward and having sharpish pains in my general tummy area. Daily. I've gotten a number of tests done, and the douche of a doctor I see decided, "hey it's not cancer, so we don't really need to know what it is" and has had me try different medications which have yet to make the pain stop. It's had a negative effect on my energy levels and I always seemed to have a paper or test to worry about (and now working all day).

But here it is, and I hope you like it. (review!) Also, funny story. I have an idea for a third segment of this, set in the frontier world. I always wanted to do a 02/04 crossover. But I won't get ahead of myself.

Up next on the agenda:

Too Young Chapter 2 (started)

Innocence Lost Chapter 3 –I've been watching the original subbed (which I'm having trouble finding) to refresh my memory/get the story. I've got some ideas for the demon lords and the original 5 chosen that get 15 seconds referenced to them.

Oh yeah…REVIEW!! (please!!)