There's No Rest for the Wicked

Disclaimer: *punches in a time card* Here we go again. Digimon's not mine. It's owned by some rich people that I don't feel like naming.

A/N: Happy Easter, y'all! Well, finally here's my sequel to "Reflection." You really don't have to read my first story before reading this, since some of the major points will be clarified later, but it is recommended if you don't want to be confused in the first few chapters. This story will be a little more action-oriented than "Reflection," FYI, so to all those Kenlei fans, yes this will be a Kenlei, but the romance aspect will be toned down for most of this. (Sorry!) But other than that, hope you enjoy this.

G: *clears throat* Didn't you forget something?

Gaia: Hmmm, you're right. For those readers who haven't read my note at the beginning of "Reflection," I will be using the English names for the characters and digimon that have English names.

Gwen: *sees G growling* I don't think that's what she meant.

Gaia: Um, how about a warning that I haven't watched that many episodes and/or can't remember a lot of them?

Gwen: *sees G fuming* I don't think that's it either.

Gaia: I don't like to use cuss words?

G: (ready to explode and shouting) You forgot to introduce us!

Gaia: *raises an eyebrow* I don't see the point, but okay. Readers, meet Gwen, my grammar check, and G my…um, er…other useless muse. There, happy?

G: (flatly) Ecstatic.

10/18/2013 update: Wow, I can't believe how fubarred the formatting of this first chapter got since it was first posted. (Gwen: Plus all the errors I missed! Oh, the humanity!) Not quite the way to make a good first impression for first-time readers of this, so I went ahead and cleaned it up a bit. I'm hoping to go back and do the same for the rest of my chapters soon…

Chapter 1- Evil Revived

Over the brightly lit district of Odaiba, black clouds mysteriously began to gather, completely covering the quarter moon that loomed in the night sky. They seemed to be migrating to a certain apartment building on a now tranquil street, but no one paid any heed, not even the residents of said apartment building.

"Hey Hawkmon, take a look at this," called Yolei Inoue to her partner digimon, all the while not taking her eyes off her computer screen, "I got an e-mail from Izzy. He says that 868 more kids with D-3's were discovered today, mostly in America, France, and India. Wow, that brings our count to exactly ten times the number of Digidestined there were four years ago when we fought Malomyotismon."

Yes, four years had passed since that fateful battle in the Digital World. The older original Digidestined had left for colleges across Japan and around the world, while the younger of the original Digidestined all decided to attend the same high school in Odaiba—except for Cody, of course, who went to a nearby junior high.

In that time, Izzy Izumi and Yolei Inoue had formed the Digidestined Society, an organization that kept track of all the children who received Digivices across the world, and the two were currently sharing Co-Presidency.

After replying to Izzy's message, Yolei found that another e-mail awaited her.

All of a sudden, "Oh my gosh, Hawkmon!" squealed the bearer of the Digieggs of Love and Sincerity. "Ken sent me another e-mail! He says, 'Happy Fourth Anniversary of the first time you declared that you loved me. Yours always and forever, Ken.' Awww, isn't that so sweet?" she cooed.

Then a thought crossed her mind. "But our anniversary isn't until tomorrow." The lavender-haired girl checked the time the message was sent. "It looks like he sent it at eleven-fifty, so I'm guessing he hoped that I'd read it tomorrow morning," she continued to think out loud.

Unnoticed, a dark shadow silently crept up behind her.

"Hmmmm, I wonder if he's still awake. Maybe I should send him an early anniversary message, too. I can probably get in another shot about me beating him on our last history test. What do you say, Hawkmon?" asked Yolei from the chair at her desk.

When she didn't her a reply from the rookie-level digimon, Yolei curiously turned around in her chair. "Hawkmon?"

But what greeted her eyes was not what she expected.

The small bird digimon lay unconscious in the center of her room, the feathers around his neck disheveled and bent out of shape.

"Hawkmon!" The girl's glasses-rimmed eyes went wide, and she immediately ran over to tend to her partner digimon. "Hawkmon, are you okay? Say something!"

"Yolei Inoue," boomed an ominous voice from behind her.

The girl in question's blood ran cold.

'No, it's not possible!' she fearfully thought.

Still kneeling down beside the motionless digimon, Yolei gulped and stiffly turned her head around to find the source of the voice—and saw someone that nearly made her heart stop.

The teenage girl opened her mouth to utter a name almost long forgotten, but she strangely couldn't find her voice.

"I think it's a wonderful idea to send a message to Ichijouji," declared the malicious being who slowly started to approach her. "Unfortunately you won't be around to write it."

With that, the crimson figure raised a clawed hand towards her, and the world instantly became black.

Having his heart ripped out of his chest and his stomach gutted by a rusty dagger would have been nothing compared to the pain he was going through. Heck, being struck by lightning would have felt good compared to this.

After finally coming home from his extremely tiring soccer practice, Ken Ichijouji had immediately turned on his computer and went online to check his e-mail. Little did he expect that the message from his loving girlfriend's e-mail address was sent by his worst nightmare.

Standing in front of his computer in mute pain, Ken reread the accursed e-mail for the billionth time since he had opened it. It was almost as if he wanted to burn the message into his brain.

Ken Ichijouji,

I have taken the Digidestined, Yolei Inoue, hostage. If you ever want to see her alive again, meet me in the Digital World twenty-four hours after this message was sent at the coordinates shown below. Come alone and as the Digimon Emperor. If you do not comply with any part of this, she will die, and I will simply keep taking Digidestined until you do. Remember, you have only until 24 hours after this message was sent.

Daemon

At first, Ken had desperately tried to convince himself that this was most likely a practical joke from his girlfriend, but the e-mail following that one ironically destroyed his fleeting hopes, considering who it was from.

Ken,

Where are you? I've been looking for you all afternoon. Yolei's gone! Hawkmon says she's been kidnapped. E-mail me back if you have any clue where she might be.

T. K.

"Daemon, you monster!" Ken muttered darkly under his breath.

The incensed boy would have punched a hole through his monitor if it weren't his most convenient way of getting to the Digital World.

For the millionth time in a half hour, he checked the time the previous e-mail was sent.

12:00 A. M., Tokyo time.

Darnnit!

He quickly darted his eyes once again to the clock on his desk.

6:06 P. M.

Only five hours and fifty-four minutes left.

Why didn't he figure out that something was wrong when Yolei failed to show up at school today? Why he couldn't he have read his e-mail earlier? How come he didn't think of checking up on her until now?

Ken tore his stinging eyes away from the screen and began to meander about his room, lost in thought.

He couldn't believe it. Just yesterday, the light of his life was poking fun at him for doing worse than her on their last history test, and now she was gone in an instant. How could he have let this happen?

Letting out a guttural growl, he slammed both fists into a wall and let his head fall between them.

"It's all my fault!"

One fist was pulled back but soon made contact with the wall again.

"She's gone because of me! First Sam…then Wormmon…and now her…" A lump formed in his throat, and he could feel hot tears starting to trickle down his face.

The indigo-haired boy let them flow. He didn't care anymore. All that mattered to him at the moment was Yolei.

He lifted his head and raised pleading eyes to the empty ceiling as if searching for a God.

"Why do I keep losing people?" he hoarsely croaked out.

As he lifted a throbbing hand to give the wall another beating, a glint of something on his desk caught his eye.

Ken slowly turned his forlorn face in that direction, and his gaze rested on a silver, oval frame encircling a picture of him and Yolei. Four years ago it had been a mirror given to him by the same lavender-haired girl but had since been turned into a picture frame at her suggestion.

"And see," Yolei had said when she'd given it to him, "it has these two angels on the top that will always watch over you and be by your side every time you look in the mirror."

Ken's heart crumbled at the memory.

"But where were the angels that were supposed to be watching over you?" he grimly whispered to no one.

He let his upraised hand fall into a weak slap against the wall before sinking to the floor before it. For several minutes he just sat there, huddled up in the corner of his room with his knees pulled tightly to his chest and his forehead resting on them.

'I should have been the angel watching over you. I should have sensed that you were in danger. Where was I when you needed me?' he castigated himself mentally.

Suddenly a wave of bitterness overcame him as a thought crossed his mind.

"That's right," he angrily growled to himself, "Wormmon wanted me in bed by midnight last night, and I've been too busy with school and practice all day. Stupid soccer, stupid school, stupid, fussy, mothering worm…"

The Digidestined of Kindness suddenly shot his head up, his eyes wide.

"Wait, what am I thinking? How could I say such things about Wormmon?"

As if on cue, the aforementioned digimon crawled into the room.

"Ken, your mom needs your help in the kitchen. Apparently a small digimon like me can't—Ken, what's wrong?" Wormmon questioned as soon as he saw his partner sitting at the far end of his room.

"Nothing, Wormmon," he hastily said, wiping his eyes dry and getting up. He instantly made a break for the door. "I just need to step out for a few minutes, that's all."

The lanky boy wildly grabbed the sweater off his doorknob and dashed towards the front door as soon as he had exited the room.

"Ken? Ken! Where are you going? It'll be dark soon," Wormmon cried after him.

"I need some time alone to think. Don't worry about me," he replied a little more harshly than he had intended. Then, in the calmest voice he could muster, he called to his parents, "I'm going for a walk in the park. I'll be back soon."

With that, Ken was out the front door and down the hall before Mr. and Mrs. Ichijouji could find anything to say.

"Ken…?" whispered a worried Wormmon. Curious, the rookie-level digimon, scurried over to his partner's desk. "Now what could have happened to make him so upset?"

It didn't take long for him to find out. The moment he had crawled onto his partner's chair, Wormmon read the message left on the boy's computer screen.

Almost as shocked as the boy was by the e-mail, the only thing the little green digimon could find to say was "Uh, oh."

The cool spring breeze on the dark-haired boy's sweaty face would have felt good if he didn't have so much on his mind. Above the district of Tamachi, the sun was dipping slowly down into the horizon, turning the sky a blazing orange-red, and children were already leaving the local park.

Ken, on the other hand, wasn't about to leave anytime soon.

After sprinting all the way over here from his apartment to vent his anger, he decided to take a contemplative walk along the pond to calm down.

He silently kicked a pebble into the small body of water and caused the still surface to ripple. 'What am I going to do?' the Digidestined of Kindness thought despondently. 'I want to get Yolei back so badly, but it looks like the only way I can do that is show up as the Digimon Emperor. But I'm not him anymore; Yolei and I made sure of that! And Daemon's no fool—he'd see right through me if I just posed as the Emperor.'

Ken let out a frustrated growl and punched a nearby tree, which shook under his forceful blow. The boy's knuckles stung even more than they already did and turn scarlet, but that was the least of his worries now.

Sighing, Ken leaned his back against the same tree and looked down at his feet. 'If I were the Emperor, maybe I would be able to think of a way out of this,' he pondered wistfully, 'but I can't become him again. He was a tyrant Yolei helped me put away for good.'

For a moment there was silence, but then…

'Or so you think.'

Ken jerked his head up. "N-No, it couldn't possibly…"

'Oh yes it could, my dear Emperor.'

The boy's eyes landed on the pond, and, a thought crossing his mind, he instantly headed for it. Once he reached the edge, he knelt on the bank and fearfully peered into the reflecting waters.

Shaded indigo eyes stared back at indigo.

"Not again…" Ken gasped.

"You took the words right out of my mouth," his reflection commented, "literally and figuratively." He smirked. "Let's see, recognition of me as a separate entity, check; dark emotions, check; possession of body by me, soon to be check."

"Oh, no you don't." The boy started to stand up to back away. "I made a promise with Yolei never to become you again." He was ready to run as far away from there as he could when the reflection said something that pierced his heart.

"Not even to save her life?"

That stopped Ken in his tracks. The Digidestined of Kindness simply stood there, his head still looking down into the pond at the Emperor.

"Face it. This is the only way to get her back from Daemon."

"No!" Ken nearly shouted, luckily not drawing attention from the passersby. "There's got to be another way."

"Yeah, run like a scared coward and let the ditz die; try to dress up as me and watch her die; have a Bakemon pose as me while you try to save her, utterly fail because you underestimate Daemon's intelligence and watch her die anyway…ooo, didn't think of that one, did you?" the image of the Emperor toyed with him. "Sure, there's lots of other ways to solve your problem, but not all of them will be very pleasant."

Ken clenched his teeth and balled his hands into fists in fury, but the Emperor simply continued to prod him. "Come on—look at your options. Your best chance is letting me take over. What, you don't think you're strong enough to defeat me once you've satisfied Daemon? Oh yeah, that's right, you probably aren't, but didn't you once say, 'Well, that's a risk I'm willing to take!'?" he quoted in Ken's own voice.

Ken turned away from the pond, but the voice of his dark side continued to taunt him in his mind.

'Will you stop being so stubborn and think for once? What's more important to you, a promise with that meddlesome girl or her life?' Then a little less harshly, the voice in his head soothed, 'Listen, Kenny boy, I'll just take over for a little while—I swear. You can always regain control again like you did last time; it's not as if this will be permanent. You know there's no other way to save her.'

The Digidestined of Kindness didn't want to admit it, but his dark side was right. There was no other way.

Sighing in surrender, he turned back to his reflection in the water and hissed, "Fine, I'll let you take over—but only for a short time, you understand?"

"Perfectly." The Emperor smiled maliciously.

In the distance, the sun had just set, and the sky was turning a dark shade of midnight blue.

"So, what do I have to do to give you control?"

"That's no problem. One more dark emotion should do the trick. How about experiencing hate?"

Ken hesitated. "The one emotion you couldn't evoke from me before?"

The image in the water nodded. "Come on. We don't have all night. It's the fastest and easiest emotion to experience. Just think of someone to hate."

There was no hesitation on Ken's part for this one. "That's simple. I hate Daemon."

That was all the Emperor needed to hear.

Back at the Ichijouji residence, an extremely agitated Wormmon was pacing back and forth on his tiny pods and debating whether or not he should tell Ken's parents about what had happened. The little green digimon had already sent out e-mails to Ken's friends alerting them to the danger his human partner and Yolei were in. All he could do now was wait.

It wasn't long before he heard the front door open and slam shut.

"Ken, are you okay? Where have you been?" the rookie-level digimon heard Mrs. Ichijouji ask.

'Ken's back!' Wormmon joyfully thought. He immediately scurried out of the bedroom to go greet his best friend.

"I told you before, Mother, I just went for a walk in the park. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some very important business to attend to," the dark-haired boy replied curtly.

The insect digimon froze in the middle of the hallway. It had been years since Ken had used that tone of voice.

"Ken, honey, don't you even want some dinner?" his mother nearly pleaded, even more distraught.

"I'm not hungry! Now leave me alone!" the youngest Ichijouji called back harshly as he quickly made his way towards his room.

Wormmon darted back into Ken's bedroom. He knew better than to be within hitting distance when Ken talked like that.

"Ken, what's the matter with you?" Mr. Ichijouji sternly called after him. "You're going to make your mother cry if you keep saying such things. Ken, are you listening to me? Ken?!"

By this time the teenage boy had ducked into his room and locked the door behind him. As he made his way to his still active computer, he muttered under his breath, "Troublesome insects."

Just as he sat down at his desk, a knock came from his door.

"Ken, I think we need to have serious talk about your attitude," called the voice of his father.

The boy sighed. He'd better find a way to get rid of him fast so he could start on his work.

Trudging over to the door, he took a deep breath and opened it just wide enough for him to stick his head out.

In the most apologetic voice he could summon and putting on the saddest look he could contort his face into, he whimpered, "I'm sorry, Dad. I've just been under a lot of stress lately at school and soccer. You know the season's about to start soon, and my teachers are assigning so many tests next week. I just needed a break from it all, so I went to the park to clear my head. Please don't be angry with me."

Mr. Ichijouji's heart melted. "Aw, I'm not mad at you, Ken. I can remember how hard it was when I was your age, too."

Inside Ken's head, his dark side thought, 'This had better not be the start of a lengthy father-son story. I don't have the time for this.'

Reaching in and patting his shoulder, the elder Ichijouji said, "I'll just let you get back to your work while I go tell your mother what really was the matter."

The dark-haired boy smiled. "Thanks, Dad." With that, he popped his head back in and quickly closed the door.

After he made sure that his father was gone for good, he said to himself proudly, "I really should have been an actor. That performance was worthy of an Oscar, if I do say so myself."

He was about to go back to his computer when a creaking sound from the bunk bed drew his attention.

Surprise clearly written across his face, the tall boy scowled at the green digimon on his bed. "You! How long have you been up there?"

Out of habit, Wormmon cowered back a little, but his concern for the Digidestined of Kindness drove him to crawl boldly forward and state, "Long enough. What have you done with Ken?"

The boy below him smirked. "Nothing really… Let's just say he had me sub in for him when he realized that he couldn't take on Daemon as himself."

He left the perplexed digimon where he was for now and out of curiosity went to check his mail. As he suspected, there were four new messages waiting for him—one from each of his "friends" with the subject heading "RE: Yolei's been kidnapped!"

Not even bothering to open them, he deleted all of them with a few clicks of the mouse. "I see someone's been playing stool pigeon," he commented nonchalantly.

Opening a new program on his computer, the boy continued. "No matter—this just means I'm going to have to tweak my plans a little to take them into account, but for now," he said, briefly checking his clock, "I've got some preparations to make and only three hours, fifty-nine minutes, and twelve seconds to make them in."

He heard the sound of a few more creaks coming from his bed.

"And don't think you're going anywhere, worm," he growled, not even turning his head. "One more peep from you to anyone about this, and Kenny boy gets into an 'accident.' Understand?"

The creaking stopped.

Wormmon sat petrified at the top of the ladder leading to Ken's bed. There was nothing he could do but watch as the revived Emperor sat casually typing at his computer.

G: That was only the first chapter?! What, are you writing a novel or something?

Gaia: Well, sorry, but half of it was already in the preview. How long did you expect it to be?

Gwen: Shorter than this.

Gaia: Well, don't worry. I'll be back to my old habits by the next chapter.

G: You mean writing poorly, cutting off the story in the wrong places, inserting too many flashbacks…?

Gaia: *smacks the back of G's head* No, writing shorter chapters of course!

G: *rubs bruised head* Ow, what are you trying to do, decapitate me?

Gaia: *smiles wickedly* Is that a request?

G: *pushes Gwen forward* For her.

Gwen: O_O!