Disclaimer: Toei and Bandai own Digimon—I don't. Did you expect me to?
The Final Dream and the First Dream
Again he stands in the desert.
Again he stands before the prison.
Again, he confronts the demon.
No more again. This ends now.
"I saw your little moment with your maggot," sneers the Kaiser. "It was so touching it made me want to vomit."
Again he glares—not in desperation, but in defiance. "That conversation was not meant for your ears, demon."
For the first time, the Kaiser's smirk falters—but only for a second, and it quickly straightens. "I see—you couldn't defeat me with silence, so now you hope to do so with words. You'll have to do much better than that though—I am not as easily broken as you."
Ken clutches his fist. "I am not weak."
"I'm afraid your actions say otherwise Ken-chan—does a strong being seek comfort from a maggot? An idiotic, worthless, NOTHING? Does it merely take empty words from the nothing to set your determination?" The Kaiser sighs. "You've fallen lower than I could ever think possible Ken-chan—and that is saying something. Your resistance is futile anyway—you WILL succumb to my urging."
Again Ken hears voices—but these voices are different…
They come from someone he knows all too well…
"I like you because you're gentle, Ken-chan. But you have to be strong too, or you'll be consumed by your own gentleness…"
"The urge to inflict pain on the lesser beings…"
"Then you told me to call you the Digimon Kaiser…I can't do that! No matter what you look like, Ken-chan is Ken-chan!"
"Like the weak maggot…you already showed your anger towards it. Care to wager how long it'll be before you start whipping it again?"
"You've returned to the kind Ken-chan…"
"Why do you even try to hide that longing? Its very existence is a crime against our perfection!"
"Wormmon?"
"Yes Ken-chan?"
"…I'm glad you were born."
"…Me too, Ken-chan."
"To speak nothing of its insistence on being OUR partner. The perfect being demands a perfect Digimon—not a weak, worthless worm!"
"There's no one I'd rather have for my partner…my friend."
Ken lowers his head. The Kaiser's grin stretches.
Any moment now, he will hear the delicious sounds of his worthless tears and begging.
No.
Ken raises his head—and his blue eyes, formerly dull from fear, burn with an icy fury.
Like the Kaiser's—and yet, not.
"I hate you," he says plainly. "I hate you so much, that when you use that wretched voice, you make it impossible to think—impossible to tell the truth from the lies you spew. But there is one thing I know to be true—and that is enough."
The Kaiser raises his eyebrows in interest. "Oh? And what is this one thing Ken-chan?"
"Wormmon is not weak."
Silence.
The Kaiser throws his head back and laughs. "Is that it? Ha, ha , ha…I'm more the fool for actually thinking you had something worthwhile to—"
"Wormmon is stronger than you."
Silence.
Now, for the first time, the Kaiser's grin completely vanishes.
For a second.
It reappears, but it is different—no longer calm, it shakes with rage.
"I'm sorry, Ken-chan," he says, his voice also seeping with anger. "I must have misheard you. I could have sworn you said that that…MAGGOT is superior to me."
"You heard correctly, demon. He IS stronger than you. Do you want to know why?"
"DO enlighten me, Ken-chan."
"Then tell me this 'Kaiser-sama'"—and the demon growls at the disrespect of his title—"what would you do if your best friend—your only friend—suddenly changed for the worst? If he was driven mad beyond limitations, if he suddenly decided you weren't a friend anymore, if he suddenly treated you like a slave. Would you stay with that friend? Or would you leave him to his inevitable doom?"
"Let me know when these questions have a point." But the Kaiser's attempt at a bored, superior sounding voice is poor, and his fist is clenching.
"Wormmon chose to stay. He chose to stay with a friend who seemed to be lost—lost to a monster wearing his skin. Because he saw what the other could not see—his friend, trapped, attempting to escape. He chose monstrous abuse and cruelty over his own safety, all for the sake of that friend. Could YOU do such a thing 'Kaiser-sama'?"
"Such a choice means nothing!" sneers the Kaiser, sounding angrier than he intended. "All it proves is the worthless creature's stupidity—its inability to accept a dead person! That is not strength!" And then, to the Kaiser's shock, there is a smirk on KEN'S face now.
"Why don't we stop with the pretending Kaiser? You already know I speak the truth—you KNOW Wormmon is stronger than you. That's the real reason you hate him so much, isn't it?"
"Don't you DARE presume for ME, Ichijouji Ken!!"
"But you know. You know—because he defeated you." And as the Kaiser stares in enraged shock, Ken continues, "Your arrogance goes beyond foolishness Kaiser, but you aren't unintelligent. You KNOW he defeated you. Daisuke and Magnamon defeated Kimeramon, but HE defeated you. His sacrifice awoke me—and drove you away, deep into your prison. He proved his superiority. So tell me this, Kaiser—if a 'weak worthless worm', as I believe you called him, is superior, what does that make you?"
"You DARE…You DARE…"
"I'll tell you what that makes you," replies Ken, and his smirk is gone, as he steps forward, until only the bars separate the two. "An insignificant parasite. In the grand scheme of the universe, you're nothing but a disgusting mosquito who feeds on pain and suffering instead of blood." The Kaiser releases a bestial scream and lunges forward to grab Ken, but the boy grabs the demon's hand, without a single change of expression. "And when there's nothing left to feed on…you die. You are not perfection, you are not a ruler, and you aren't even worth being afraid of." Releasing his hand, Ken turns aside and walks away. "Stop calling me here—I have better things to do with my life. Like cleaning up after your mess."
"Get back here…" the Kaiser snarls, his entire being quaking with unholy rage. "I SAID GET BACK HERE!!! THAT WAS AN ORDER!!! How DARE you…how do you have the GALL to talk to ME like that?!!! You, nothing but a pathetic INSECT…that's all you are!!!! AN INSECT!!! YOU HEAR ME?!!!! AN INSECT!!!!"
There is no response but the blowing of the desert winds.
"You think this is OVER, Ichijouji Ken?!!" The Kaiser breaks into a laugh—wild and hysterical. "You think your insignificant words have driven ME back?!! No matter how long it takes, no matter how much you resist me, I WILL return!!! And you will PAY—oh yes, you will PAY! You will pay when you shed your disgusting tears over the torture and deaths of your pathetic fellow insects---ESPECIALLY the maggot!!! You thought it suffered at my hands before?!! By the time I'm through with the filth, it will be BEGGING me to end its worthless exis—"
WHAM!
The Kaiser flies towards the back of the cell, blood spraying from his nose. Standing over the slumped demon is Ken, the icy flame in his eyes burning like mad—and to the Kaiser, the boy suddenly seems to grow, to tower over him.
For the first time—the Kaiser fears his other half.
"Throw your temper tantrums all you want," he says in a deathly quiet voice. "Slander me and everyone I care for if it makes your black heart swell. But you will NEVER harm anyone of my friends EVER again. Your reign is OVER, Digimon Kaiser—history will only remember you as another fallen tyrant. A tyrant who became drunk with power, who eventually drank himself to death. That's all you are. And I reject you."
Silence.
Ken's eyes widen. The Kaiser is screaming, his mouth is moving.
But there is no sound. Ken hears nothing.
No trace of that hideous voice.
A smile, the largest, most genuine smile he has had in a week, crosses the boy's face.
And he leaves the now calm desert for happier grounds.
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In the top of the bunk bed, Wormmon sighed in happy relief, as a smile crossed the dreaming boy's face.
The nightmares were over. Ken-chan was happy again. The Kaiser would torture his partner no more.
Closing his eyes, it took less than a minute for the cocoon Digimon to join his friend in dreamland…
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Every child, no matter their capabilities, maturity, or intelligence, has had dreams.
Dreams so wonderful they always remain, reminding the child of their innermost joy.
Ichijouji Ken, renowned boy genius, was no exception.
But his were better.
They would be even if he was a normal Chosen Child. For all the horror it brought them, including monsters of unimaginable evil, the Chosen Children had experienced genuine joy and happiness beyond what any child was expected to have.
But Ken's were better.
Because he had been one of those monsters—and was not anymore.
And almost every night, he would dream…
Dream of blowing bubbles with Osamu nii-chan…
Dream of heated soccer matches with a fiery goggle-head, until they both collapsed on the ground in exhausted laughter…
Dream of unimaginable steps taken involving a certain lanky, purple haired girl (like holding her hand)…
But those were not the best dreams.
He knew what the best dreams were…
It is a field of blinding sand—but slowly, as if by magic, green appears all over. Trees bloom, flowers grow, and streams start babbling.
He is a boy of eight again, and he looks with an innocent, happy grin towards his friend, a green worm with large eyes.
"What'cha wanna do today Wormmon?"
The worm smiles with his eyes. "Anything! As long as I'm with Ken-chan, anything is fun!" And he dashes onwards, a giggling Ken running after him.
Onwards…towards their next fun day…
Well, that's that! Some who have read my other stories might have noticed that this one isn't quite as dark. The fact is, I'm getting kind of tired of writing stories like that, and want to try to do happier ones. Sorry to those who liked those stories—but I'm not really a depressing kind of guy.
Anyway, I hope you all liked this story, and review it!