~Reflection~ Disclaimer: There are just so many ways you can say "Digimon is not freakin' mine!!!" *** Chapter 4 Fingers flying faster than light itself, Ken furiously typed out the last page of his homework and used his mouse to click none-too-gently on the "print" button. It was painfully obvious that he was no longer in a good mood. Earlier at dinner he had meekly showed his parents his latest failure. Even though they hadn’t yell at him for his low mark, but rather had tried to console him and encourage him to do better, he could still detect the disappointment in their voices and their eyes. He knew exactly what they had been thinking: ‘This had never happened to Sam; what’s wrong with Ken?’ The dark-haired boy couldn’t help but feel the slightest bit of envy that his brother had been a natural genius--not like him, an ordinary kid who had to rely on a measly little spore for his special abilities. Restless, Ken stole a quick glance at the clock before standing up to glare impatiently at his printer. 12:00 A. M. As soon as he had excused himself from the dinner table, Ken had immediately locked himself up in his room and started his homework. Ever since then, he hadn’t stopped working, not even to answer Wormmon’s anxious questions. Maybe it was because he knew that this was what Sam would have done, or maybe it was because he felt guilty about disappointing his parents like he did, but whatever the reason, Ken had tried to finish all of his homework as quickly and accurately as possible, even the assignments due next week. "Ken?" timidly asked a small voice beside him. "What?!" he snapped and glowered at the bug-like digimon. Wormmon shut his mandibles and cowered back around the side of the desk in fear. At the sight of his digimon partner’s terrified retreat, Ken’s face softened, and he tried his best to calm down. "I’m sorry, Wormmon," Ken soothed his digimon, "I’ve just been under a lot of stress lately, that’s all." "I understand, Ken. It must be hard for you to perform at your best now that the Dark Spore’s been deactivated." Ken sighed. "Yeah, especially when some people still expect you to be someone else." As he roughly yanked the papers off his printer tray and stuffed them in a folder in his bookbag, he happened to spy the present Yolei had given him lying on the floor next to his desk. Ken gingerly picked up the paper bag and pulled out the sparkling, silver mirror. Sitting back down in his chair, he set the mirror on top of the pile of papers in the corner of his desk. "And see," she had said, "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." "But at least some people still care about the real me…" Ken murmured. "What did you say, Ken?" piped up Wormmon. "Huh? Oh, it’s nothing, Wormmon," the indigo-haired boy said, redirecting his attention towards the rookie digimon. "Better go on to bed without me for now. I still need to study." "Are you sure you’ll be all right? It’s getting late, and you could use a good night’s rest." "Don’t worry about me. I already had a nap today, remember?" Ken paused before solemnly stating, "I really need to make up for all the time I lost this afternoon." Seeing that there was no changing his mind on the subject, Wormmon just nodded. "Okay, Ken, if that’s what you want." Reluctantly, he crawled up to Ken’s bed and burrowed under the covers. Ken sighed again as he pulled out his history book. ‘I’m sorry, Wormmon,’ he thought. ‘I don’t like shutting you out like this anymore than you do, but for some reason I feel as if I need to distance myself from you for a while.’ In no time, Ken could hear his partner’s deep breathing, indicating that the digimon had fallen asleep. He was just about to turn to the next chapter in his book when something in Yolei’s mirror caught his eye. Indigo eyes and shaded indigo eyes stared back at indigo. Two frowns met frown. Ken’s eyes were now fully fixated on the mirror, and he could feel his heart rate jump to ten beats a second. Before him were two reflections of himself: on the left, the reflection that he saw everyday in the bathroom mirror and right beside it, his image as the Digimon Emperor. Ken opened his mouth slightly in silent horror. The face on the left mimicked the expression, but the face on right simply twisted his mouth into a casual smirk. Suddenly thinking of something, Ken whirled his head around to look over his right shoulder… …but was only greeted with the sight of his dark, empty room. The Digidestined of Kindness’ eyes widened in shock, and he could feel his blood run cold as he stiffly turned his head back around to face the mirror. This time when he looked into it, he saw something strange happen. His two reflections began to move towards each other, slowly but surely. At first the images overlapped like two transparent pictures being laid on top of each other, but in the end the face of the Digimon Emperor eclipsed his own reflection. The image of the evil tyrant retained the smirk on his face as he said snidely, "Remember me now, Emperor?" Ken flinched. ‘That voice!’ he mentally exclaimed. It was the same one that had been plaguing him since yesterday. Now Ken realized why it sounded so familiar; it was almost identical to voice he’d used when he was the Digimon Emperor, only somehow this one sounded a bit more sinister than his had been. "Are you," Ken tentatively asked, "me, or at least the part of me that’s the Digimon Emperor?" The face in the mirror made a movement as if to shrug. "Close enough, considering that you’re no Sam." Ken felt the hairs the back of his neck bristle at this. "Actually," the reflection continued, "I'm what you would consider the dark side of you—the side that took over when you turned into the Digimon Emperor, the side that made you the unstoppable evil force that you were, the side that you’ve been trying to bury ever since our preposterous defeat in that accursed desert!" Letting this revelation sink in, Ken sat there in silence. Finally after a few minutes, he croaked out hoarsely, "But I thought I had gotten rid of you back when I opened up the Dark Gate." "Gotten rid of me?" scoffed the image, "Don’t make me giggle, Emperor boy. You merely succeeded in imprisoning me deep within yourself." Ken felt his heart sink. ‘Great,’ he thought sarcastically, ‘I didn’t destroy this guy; I just made him feel a whole lot better by imprisoning him all this time…Imprisoning him…? Wait a minute…’ Then aloud Ken asked suspiciously, "If I had imprisoned you, how can you haunt me now?" The face in the mirror hung his head and slowly shook it as if in disappointment. "Oh, Emperor, Emperor, Emperor." "Stop calling me that! I'm no longer the Digimon Emperor; I'm Ken Ichijouji!" "Fine then, Ken." The boy in question started at the way his dark side coldly said his name. "Have you perhaps been feeling a little bit of guilt lately? Or maybe felt a touch of regret or despair? Could you have possibly been stirred to anger or jealousy recently?" the image of the Digimon Emperor asked insinuatingly. Those questions hit Ken like a thunderbolt. It was true. He had felt all of those emotions and in the last two days in fact. Trying not to let his dark side detect the apprehension he felt, Ken inquired in as calm a voice as he could manage, "So what if I have?" "Foolish boy! Do I have to spell it out for you?" the image spat. Then, apparently attempting to keep his cool as well, he began to speak to Ken as if to a child. "All of those are dark feelings. I am a dark being; I feed off of dark feelings, just like the Dark Spore did when you were younger. Therefore, I have gotten much stronger in the past few days and broken out of the blasted tomb you stuck me in!" he ended with a snarl. Seeing Ken’s crestfallen expression, the dark entity smiled wickedly and decided to continue to rub it in. "Guilt wasn’t that hard to elicit from you; you’ve never really forgiven yourself for what you’ve done. As for the others…well, let's just say I had to take advantage of someone's destitute state in order to provoke him into the rest." Ken had heard enough from this guy. Right about now he would do anything to shut him up. "So what do I have to get rid of you for good? Be bright and happy for the rest of my life?" The image snorted. "Oh, please, as if it would be that easy to put me out of commission. No, no, if you want me gone so badly, you’re going to have to play by my rules." Ken raised an eyebrow at his reflection’s sudden demand. "And if I don’t?" The Emperor’s familiar smirk reappeared in the mirror. "Then maybe one day when you aren’t careful, I may take over your entire body once again and give that traitorous little worm the excruciating death he deserves. And if he dies in the real world, you know what might happen." Indeed, Ken did know what could happen. Kari had once told him about her friend Wizardmon, who had died in the real world and was turned into a ghost instead of being reconfigured like the digimon that died in the Digital World were. Clenching his fists tightly enough to draw blood, Ken growled at the face in the mirror, "Fine, I’ll play your little game, but promise to leave Wormmon out of this." The Emperor’s smirk widened into a devilish smile. "Of course." "Okay, so what I have to do?" Ken asked warily. "Go to the Digital World, alone. Find the place in the desert where our base crashed. There’s something there I want to show you." Grumbling, Ken pulled out his D-3 and activated the Digiport program on his computer. "I hope I’m not going to regret this," he muttered to himself, raising the black digivice to the screen. "Digiport open!" In a blinding flash of white light, he was gone, as was the reflection in the mirror. ‘Ha ha ha, that’s it my little fly of a Digimon Emperor; walk into my spider’s web. Only a few more dark emotions to go, and you will be all mine.’ *** Gaia: Egads, these chapters are getting longer and longer. Gwen: Isn’t that a good thing? G: No, it means that she won’t be able to get them out soon enough for the few readers that she has. Gaia: (mumbling to herself) Let's see, maybe I should shorten the next chapter a bit….*G's comment sinks in* (aloud) Hey, I resent that last remark. G: *ignoring her* And it means more work for us. Gwen: Oh, I see. Gaia: *picks up G by the collar of her shirt and throws her out the window* (grumbling) Insolent, lazy muses