~Reflection~ Disclaimer:  Eleven disclaimers already and I have yet to say who really owns Digimon.  Oh well. *just shrugs and says nothing more* A/N: Sorry about the tardiness of this chapter.  The next one will be out sooner, though, because it’s much shorter than this one. Ack! And I just realized I spelled Yolei’s last name incorrectly in the Chapter 10. *turns to Gwen* Okay, I’ve made for that little oversight, so get back to checking the grammar in this chapter. (Gwen: Well you wouldn’t have made that mistake in the first place if you had let me do the grammar check instead of clicking the ignore button all the time on the spellchecker.) ^_^;;; Pardon me *throws Gwen and a copy of this chapter for her to edit out the window* *** Chapter 12 Cruel indigo eyes stared back at shocked scarlet. Triumphant smirk met pained grimace. Staring up into the pale visage of the boy whose chokehold was draining the life out of her, Yolei could only sputter out a "K-Ke-en?" as she felt herself slipping in and out of consciousness. No sooner had she spoken that name than he gave her throat one last tight squeeze and released his deadly grip on her. Yolei collapsed to the ground in a gasping heap, both hands immediately flying up to her sore neck. The figure looming above her crossed his arms over his chest and turned his side towards her. Now that oxygen was circulating to her brain, Yolei had the chance to take a better look at the boy she thought she could trust.  Ken was once again dressed in his former navy blue Emperor clothes, all right, but this time, his chin-length indigo hair remained flat, and he no longer adorned the bulky, violet-tinted shades. "Never, ever call me that again," he warned slowly and menacingly.  Turning his back to her, he walked over to the edge of the cliff he had been standing on earlier and remarked a little more casually, "A suitable spot for a new base, wouldn't you say?  The walls of this canyon will guard it well, and the only way to access it would be to fly or climb down, giving me more time to see my enemies coming." "Wh-what?" Yolei coughed.  "You can’t be serious, Ken!"  "I told you never to call me by that name! That part of me is gone for good," he seethed.  Turning around and marching back towards her, he ordered, "You will now refer to me as Emperor, Master, or Great One…whichever you prefer." Stopping mere centimeters from her, he stared straight at the shocked girl and gave her a hauntingly familiar smirk. A chill ran up Yolei's spine.  Out of instinct, she might have fearfully done as he had commanded, but the throbbing pain in her neck convinced her otherwise. "Fine, 'Great One, whichever you prefer,'" she spat at him sarcastically.  Lightning flashed in her determined eyes. The smirk was wiped off the Emperor's face as he clenched his fists in fury.  "How dare you!" "How dare I?" she obstinately said, slowly getting to her feet.  "How dare you nearly choke me to death and take control of my partner digimon like that with whatever it was you used." The Emperor's face eerily lightened up a bit.  "So you noticed my latest creation, eh?  Pretty observant, aren't we?" He began to walk around her, like a wolf circling its prey, before continuing, "Then again, it isn't all that hard to miss them.  I purposely made my Dark Bands bigger and more durable, in addition to more powerful, than my Dark Spirals or my Dark Rings so that they could stay on the digimon I wanted to control much longer.  It will be impossible for anyone but me to remove it, and the best part is they don't need to be within the range of a Control Spire to work. A stroke of genius, isn't it?" His gaze had never left her, as hers had never left his, while he explained his latest achievement.  The boy emperor's exposition now over, he stopped circling to wait and hear what she thought. It came soon enough.  "I'll give you a stroke, genius!" she snarled angrily.  "How could you betray us like this, Ken?  How--" Before she could say anything more, the Emperor pulled out a black whip from beneath his dark blue cape and furiously lashed it across her chest. Yolei cried out in pain and flew back at the sudden blow.  She landed hard a few meters away and lay still, unable to do anything but hug her stinging torso. The scowling boy strode over and knelt down beside her. He then proceeded to coil his whip around her neck and pulled up tightly on the ends, forcing her head up to his.  "I'm only going to say this one more time." He whispered to her, his voice deadly.  "Ken is gone; he has completely submitted to the darkness inside of him.  I am the Digimon Emperor now, and you will address me properly.  Understand?"  Every time he had emphasized a word, he tugged harder at the whip, momentarily cutting off her air supply each time. "I un-understand," she hoarsely croaked out. "Good."  He let her fall back down and was about to release her from the whip when she continued. "I understand…that deep down…you're still Ken," she panted.  "The Digimon Emperor… hasn't taken over… entirely." The Emperor arched an eyebrow.  "Oh really?  And what makes you say that?"  "I'm not that clueless…” She was still slightly out of breath, but she could speak fairly normally now.  "The Digital World allows us to project an image of how we picture ourselves upon entering," she stated matter-of-factly, sticking a finger in his face.  "If Ken weren't still a part of you, then you would have looked exactly the way you did before: crazy hair, gaudy glasses and all." The flat-haired Emperor chuckled and forcefully swatted her finger out of his way.  "Very perceptive of you, Inoue.  I can see why Ichijouji was attracted to you.” Yolei blinked in shock.  "Ken has feelings for me?" "Humph, no matter.  But riddle me this, Yolei," he queried, pulling up on the whip once more, "how can you be sure you're right?  For all you know, I might have just wanted a change of look.  It doesn't prove that your precious Ken still exists.  Let me tell you something: when he submitted to me, his dark side, I merged with him.  He and I are now one and the same being, and there's nothing you can do about it." He smirked in triumph down at her, but instead of Yolei turning to despair, as he had expected, she looked at him quizzically and stared deep into his eyes.  "If Ken and you are supposed to be one and the same, why do you still refer to him in the third person?" A storm brewed in the Emperor's midnight blue eyes, and his smirk transformed into a vicious scowl.  With a snarl of rage, he gave her a blow to the stomach with his gloved fist. The wind knocked out of her, Yolei doubled over in pain. "You're too clever for your own good, Inoue."  He raised his fist above her head and was about to give her a fatal blow to the base of her skull when a sudden idea came to him.  "No," he purred, lowering his hand.  "I think I can make better use of you alive." He uncoiled the whip from around her neck, to Yolei's grateful yet apprehensive relief, and returned it to the folds of his cape.  "You're right about one thing: I haven't taken complete control over Ken, yet." He pinned Yolei's arms to her sides with his strong, gloved hands and hauled her up to her feet. "But I think I know of a way I can." The Emperor pulled the struggling girl closer as if confiding a secret. "You see, Kenny boy still has to experience one more dark emotion before I gain complete dominance over him: hate.  And wouldn't it be ironic if I made him hate the bearer of the Digieggs of Love and Sincerity, and coincidentally the one Digidestined that he truly loves?" Yolei gritted her teeth and hissed, "I'll never let you get away with this." "Oh, how original."  His sarcastic comment was followed by a tightening of his grip on her arms, making the weakened girl wince in pain. Then, averting his gaze to the side as if talking to the back of his mind, he called, "Oh Ke-e-en.  I suggest you listen up because there are a few questions I want to ask Miss Sincerity here, and I think you'll be highly interested in her answers." Turning his eyes back to Yolei, he asked, "Now, Ms. Inoue, isn't it true that at some point you hated Ken, I mean, absolutely abhorred him and swore you wouldn't forgive him for all he had done?" The Emperor was forced to shake her roughly before she was willing to respond.  "All right, all right, yeah, I did once, but that was all in the pa--" He abruptly dropped her onto the dusty ground before she could finish. "And isn't it true that you were extremely reluctant to accept Ken as part of your 'team' once he had turned into a goody-two-shoes?" He leered at her as she quickly tried to scoot away from him.  Smirking, he calculatedly strode after her like a lion stalking a wounded gazelle. "Of course most of us were, but we--" "Most of you were?  Hmmm, so you weren't the only one unwilling to forgive Ken after he so obviously turned to your side, to feel sorry for him after he had lost his only friend in the world?  I smell a conspiracy here." Yolei stopped scrambling away from him for a brief second and was about to object to his preposterous assertion, but the Emperor gave her a powerful kick to the side of her head to silence her. "How do we know you Digidestined didn't plot together and pretend to forgive Ken so that you could use him to help you do your dirty work?  How do we know that once you made sure there was no longer a threat from any power-hungry digimon you wouldn't leave him to fend for himself in a harsh world jealous of his lost abilities?  How do we know that you truly are his 'friends'?" Yolei clutched her bruised face throughout this and tried to fight back the tears of pain that begged to pour from her eyes.  She could already feel her throbbing cheek start to swell, and if she did manage to get out of this ordeal alive, she would have a lot of explaining to do to her family as to why some of her teeth were loose. "Some of his so-called friends from Tamachi Elementary have already shown their true colors.  I only wonder when you will show yours."  Enraged by all the pain he had caused her and now insulted by his implicit accusation, Yolei shot her head up and glared at him with a flicker of fury in her eyes.  One hand still covering her aching cheek, the determined girl did her best to struggle to her feet. The Emperor laughed at her pitiful attempt and raised his arm in preparation to slap her back down to the ground. Driven to desperation, Yolei decided to do something she thought she would never do to any guy she liked.  Balling her right hand into a fist, she summoned the little strength she had left and leapt up with her right arm extended in front of her.  Before the shocked Digimon Emperor could react, she landed a hard punch square into his left cheek. Her unforeseen attack took him by surprise more than hurt him, but he was still forced to reel several steps backwards.  In the meantime, Yolei, who had lost her balance after hitting the indigo-haired boy, fell forward onto the dry ground breathing hard.  Proud that she had finally gotten a chance to pay him back for all the things he had put her through, she tried not to take any notice of the pain throbbing all over her battered body. To Yolei's dismay, however, a low chuckling began to resonate not too far from where she lay, and in no time that quiet laughter escalated into a maniacal cackle.  "Well, that didn't take long.  You see, Ken: this is the true Yolei Inoue, one who isn't afraid to lash out at you to save her own worthless life." Yolei stared at him in disbelief.  Ken couldn't possibly believe whatever this guy said, could he?  This creep was twisting whatever she said or did into a boldfaced lie! "Ken…don't listen to him! …Things aren't…what he says they are," she panted out as loudly as she could, hoping she could get through to the real him. As she watched the Emperor slowly approach her, a look of loathing in his face, she hurriedly continued on, not giving up hope.  "Ken…we all really care about you…Cody, T. K., Kari, Davis," she gulped, "and I would never want to hurt you…unless it's for your own good." His glare didn't waver as he reached down for her.  "We've forgiven you for what you've done; it's all in the past now.  What's important is that we help you now, in the present.  Let us help, Ken. Let me help.  Trust me--" The Digimon Emperor had once again clamped his vice-like grip around the top of her neck, right below her jaw, and lifted her up into the air. Yolei could feel the life draining from her as he squeezed harder and harder around her windpipe.  "I tire of your incessant babbling.  Why should Ken trust you or anything you say?" Her vision was fading, and she no strength left in her, but Yolei made one last attempt to say what was in her heart. "Because," she gasped out, "I love him."  *** Gwen: AAAHHHHH!!!  Gaia:  Yeah, I know, another cliffhanger.  I'm starting to enjoy doing this. Gwen:  No, it's not that; you put in Yolei abuse! G: *shrugs* So? It's not much worse than what Prince Darien did to Sailor Moon at the end of the 1st season. Gaia: Japanese version, of course. Gwen: But, but…*looks around helplessly* Shouldn't we up the rating because of this chapter? G: Why?  It's not like you've let us add in any cuss words or anything.  *sticks tongue out at Gwen*  Gwen: But still, there's a lot more violence.  *sticks tongue out at G, who drops a block of ice on it* G: Gaia, what do you say? Gaia: Awww, I don't feel like thinking right now.  Let's just ask the readers. G: Okay.  *turns to readers*  (in a saccharine tone) Please look over the chapter and tell Miss Goody-Two-Shoes here *points to Gwen, who's trying to defrost the chunk of ice stuck to her tongue* that we don't need to up the rating. Gwen: (grumbling) Imfpudent wretchthf.