I sat up, quickly, my arms flailing for my glasses and helmet. I think they were both pushed into my hands. I clamped my helmet on first, to free my other hand. Then, I was able to unfold my glasses and slip them on.

The first thing I saw was a pair of blue-violet eyes, looking at me. As I became more oriented, I recognized who knelt before me.

"Ken Ichijouji!" I yelped, scooting backwards. He cocked his head to one side, his navy blue bangs falling over his eyes in an adorable fashion. Confusion was written all over his face and I was surprised that he was willing to show expression.

"Um, Yolei?" he ventured. "Are you alright?"

It never occurred to me that he shouldn't know my name or that he shouldn't have been wearing that gray school uniform of his.

"Where are my friends?" I demanded. Ken blinked, perplexed.

"Um, Davis had detention, Cody left to find Joe and Patamon and Gatomon are taking TK and Kari to find some herbs."

"How do you know all that?" I whispered. I was scared to death and doing a pathetic job of hiding it.

"They told me." The inflection of Ken's words seemed like he thought the answer would have been obvious.

"Where's Hawkmon?"

"He's on surveillance with Stingmon." Ken pointed upwards. Following the trail of his finger, I could see the silhouette of Hawkmon and another digimon. I guessed that must be Stingmon. Warily, I turned back to Ken. He had produced a D-terminal and was typing into it.

"What are you doing?" I screeched. He was going to do something.

"Telling the others that you're awake," Ken answered. He looked up at me and smiled. "They'll be happy that you woke up; we were worried."

"Others?!?" There were more like him? No wonder he produced those control spires so quickly.

"Well, yeah. Cody's going to need to tell Joe what supplies to get and you don't need the herbs that Gatomon knew about now. They can bring someone out of unconsciousness. It's the fumes. And Davis needs to be updated, too."

"How long was I out?" I asked. Had Ken figured out how to turn humans into his slaves as well as digimon?

"About forty-five minutes," he answered, "Maybe less."

I blinked. Whatever I expected to hear, it certainly wasn't that.

"Okay, just tell me what happened." I tried to make it sound like I wasn't pleading with him and I think I did a pretty good job.

"You took off your helmet because it was too hot. After a while, we were attacked. You were riding Aquilamon and when he tried to dodge a blast, you fell off and hit your head. Frankly, you're lucky you're not in a coma. Then Cody went to the Real World to fetch Joe and Gatomon started talking about those herbs."

A huge, dark green bug digimon landed behind Ken. He was alerted to his presence by the widening of my eyes.

"Ken," the digimon said, "there's no sign of any trouble."

Since when were his slaves allowed to call him 'Ken?'

"Good," Ken said, nodding. The digimon took that as a sign to de-digivolve. My surprise died when I saw it was Wormmon. That cute little caterpillar was always by Ken's side. Hawkmon landed soon after.

"I'm so relieved to see you up and about again, Yolei," Hawkmon said to me.

"He's not the only one," Ken murmured. His cheeks were all...pink and his eyes were downcast. He was blushing...because of me?

"Thanks, Hawkmon," I stammered, not sure what to make of any thing right now. The Digimon Emperor...Ken...he was being so kind. I was missing something here.

Luckily, TK and Kari, flanked by Patamon and Gatomon, choose to appear then.

"Yolei," Kari said, "we were so worried!"

"Yeah...that's what Ken said..."

"Do you feel any after affects from hitting your head?" TK asked.

"I don't think so," I answered.

"We should probably go back to the Real World," TK advised. Everyone agreed with him, as usual. Well, Ken agreeing with TK isn't usual; Ken agreeing with anyone is unusual.

"I saw a TV on our way back here," Kari said, "it's not too far. Just give me a minute to e-mail Cody and tell him to meet us at school." We all nodded and waited the few minutes for Kari to send the message.

Preparing to leave, Ken stood, picking up Wormmon as well. I tried to stand, but I guess hitting my head affected by balance a bit. I stumbled and Kari caught me, which I thought was a little strange; Kari and I aren't very close. But then, Kari is known for compassion, so I guess it doesn't matter to her if she's close to a person or not, she cares for everyone. Briefly, I let my gaze wander to Ken and I found myself wondering if Kari cared about him, too. After all he's done I don't see how anyone could care a wit about him.

Even if he can be really sweet.

Even if he is really cute.

Even if he is staring at me right now with his cheeks red like that... Oh, my.

"Are you sure you're alright Yolei?" Kari asked, pulling my gaze back to her.

"Hm? Yeah, just a little dizzy," I answered. "It's nothing to worry about."

Kari nodded, but when she let me go she still stayed very close, like she was afraid I would lose my balance again. I understand that she was worried about a friend and all, but still, she normally stays by TK's side, even if one of us is less than perfect.

After a few minutes walk, we reached the TV. Ken pulled out his black D-3 and opened the port. No one seemed bothered by this at all except me. We landed in a pile as usual. Cody and Joe were standing a few feet away. Joe helped me get untangled from our pile.

He started asking me a bunch of questions, not seeming to care that I kept insisting that I was fine! I just hit my head it's no big deal. If we should be worried about anything it's that the Digimon Emperor is standing three feet away holding Wormmon.

Since when does he hold Wormmon?!?!

I forced myself to focus on Joe again. He was saying something about not liking the bump on my head. Now I was getting scared; Joe, the closest thing we had to a medical expert, though that my bump was dangerous.

"It's just a bump," I protested, trying to rationalize, "if anything was wrong, wouldn't we know by now?"

"You did have trouble walking," Kari pointed out.

"I was just dizzy!" I protested. "There's nothing wrong with me! It's just a bump!" I was scared, though, and my head was beginning to hurt. I started crying, big waterfall tears. I was scared, confused and my head hurt. I had a right to!

"Don't cry, Yolei."

Ken's voice was a soft plea. And due to my shock at his statement my tears did stop. Ken smiled softly. I felt a blush trickle up my cheeks. He looked away, but not before I noticed him blushing as well. I glanced at Kari. She noticed it too, I think.

"Come on," Kari said, "I'll walk you home. The others can stay and plan our next defense, but you ought to rest. Joe can look at your head again tomorrow and see if he still thinks it's dangerous, okay?"

"All right, I guess," I stammered. I moved to get Poromon, but TK told me he should stay. TK and Cody promised to bring Poromon and Gatomon back to our apartments when planning was through, so that they could give us a briefing. I nodded and waved bye to Poromon.

Once Kari and I were out of earshot, I asked her if she thought Joe was being reasonable.

"Not really," she answered. "You guys don't know Joe as well as TK and I do, he's a bit of a worrier. Well, that's not accurate. He's a lot of a worrier. I'm sure you're fine and Joe will see that tomorrow."

"Sure?" I asked nervously.

"I'm sure," Kari said. "Besides, I just feel like I'd know if something was wrong. Cody always knows when something's not right with TK, same with Davis and Ken. If something was really wrong, I should know. Okay, so Cody was a bit off and Davis's sister happened to be watching the news at the right time, but something should tell me if you're not okay."

"And Joe can't be that something?" I asked, trying to think of a time when Cody understood a problem TK might have had or when Davis helped Ken, of all people.

Kari shook her head.

"It's like when we were at the ocean. You could see it, too, I think it was just because I could and it was haunting me. It something's wrong with you, I should be able to tell."

"Kari? What are you talking about? What ocean?"

Kari turned her head to face me and blinked.

"The Dark Ocean," she whispered. "The darkness inside me, inside Ken. You could see it, remember? You said I wouldn't fight it alone."

"You're dreaming, Kari. There's no 'Dark Ocean,' there's no darkness inside you and Ken's just evil."

Kari stopped walking. She looked like she saw a ghost; her skin was pale and her eyes were wide.

"Yolei," she said, hurt, "how can you say that? There is a Dark Ocean! I've been there, Gatomon's been there, TK and Patamon have been there, Ken's been there and you and Hawkmon saw it!"

"Kari," I said slowly, "I'm starting to think you're the one we should be worried about."

"Did you just call Ken evil?" she asked, ignoring my last comment.

"Um, yeah, I think so," I said, trying to remember one of the things I just said.

"I thought you liked him," Kari said.

"Yeah, until I found out he's evil," I said, a slight blush on my cheeks. Okay, so maybe I did still like him a little bit after I found out he was the Digimon Emperor--fine, I still liked him A LOT, happy?!? But I can't trust him or anything, so it's a moot point.

"Oh," Kari said, "but I thought..." her voice trailed off and she turned around, looking in the direction we had come from.

"What?" I asked.

"It's just you and Ken, well, you know..."

I shook my head. Kari was silent after that and we resumed walking home. We were quiet for the next few minutes.

"Yolei! Kari!"

We turned at the sound of someone calling names. Ken was running towards us, Wormmon clinging to his shoulder and upper back, Gatomon running on all fours at his ankles and Poromon in his arms. Gatomon reached Kari first. Ken stopped about foot away from me and Poromon jumped from his arms to mine. I gave my digimon a squeeze.

"The others decided to get ice cream," Ken said, he seemed to be slightly annoyed. "So I figured I might as well bring Poromon and Gatomon over, otherwise it could be a while."

"You're not going with them?" Kari asked.

"No, I've got to get home and the bus ride is pretty long."

"Did you guys make a plan?" Kari asked.

Ken nodded and turned to me.

"I'll explain everything later," he said and with that he turned around and ran away.

"We're ready for action," Poromon piped up.

I didn't say anything. This all seemed very familiar.

"Ken..?"

The Dark Ocean...Ken, smiling, blushing, laughing...Poromon, with him..?...Kari and I...Davis and Ken...TK and Cody...Ken was so sweet...I liked him...Aquilamon.

"Kari," I said, wistfully watching Ken's retreating figure, "I think I hit my head harder than I thought."

Author Notes: For anyone who may still be a little confused, Yolei hit her head and got partial amnesia; she didn't forget everything, just a few months. She forgot Ken was on their side, Hawkmon digivolving to Aquilamon and DNA digivolving. Ken bringing over Poromon trigged Yolei's memories and promising an explanation, she got this sense of déjà vu, you see. Seeing as how it was told from Yolei's POV, I was afraid it might be a little confusing. One other thing, in the beginning, Yolei's head was on Ken's lap. Hehehe….

And incase anyone has noticed that this is my 4th upload in 4 days, it's because I'm on Spring Break and have no other plans, so I just write fics all day.

Disclaimers: I always try to do these differently, and I'm running out of things to say, so I'll get to the point. Digimon and all related characters and likenesses: NOT owned by moi. Sad, ne?