Jade, Ice, and Talon

LP: No, actually he\'s been quite genuine. Not to be rude, but if you go back and -read-, it says that he\'s trying to MAKE her love HIM - to prove to Wormmon and himself that he CAN be loved and MADE to be loved. Maybe some part of him is more that a simple "I\'ll show you, Wormmon." deal, but we\'ll see. ^-~



Chapter Fifteen - "Things are starting to accelerate"





Hmm. Perhaps she\'s much more pliable than I thought she was to begin with. Either that, or she simply cannot resist my darkness. She also is quite taken by surprise by my gentle side. Maybe it\'s time to see a bit more of it, and the side that I never show anyone. Sure, it\'ll be a false reproduction, but even so. A diabetic cookie is still a cookie. Right? She\'ll love me eventually - and better yet, it\'ll kill Davis. Hahahahaha!





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Jade finally slipped on the last black sock of the outfit that Ken had plucked out for her. To her curious interest, it fit her perfectly - and wasn\'t too shabby for style. Sure it wasn\'t her usual tomboy black-and-camo style, but it was definetly the street side of girly. The top was a longsleeve silken top (with a white second layer under, of course) colored robin\'s egg blue, with a sagging neckline, and tight-fitting chest. The neckline gathered above the chest, but nothing like Seinfeld\'s Puffy Shirt. It went down just past her hips, which seemed a tinch more curvy with this shirt on. The pants were made of felt. Or, what felt like felt; just softer. It wasn\'t Let\'s-Go-To-The-Hilton dressy, but it wasn\'t Tomboy. She could live with it in the middle. Especially with someone like the Emperor - but even that was questionable at this point. He seemed so - different. Maybe he was simply Narcissistic in his addiction to his goals. But, as she looked over herself and her knew outfit, she began to wonder - why did he have women\'s clothing in this place? She couldn\'t just out and ask him - but then, it occurred to her how. She strode over to the bathing room\'s entrance, and slipped through the doorless frame.

"Ken?" she called out, looking each way she could go. It was poorly lit here; she couldn\'t see anything. Jade frowned, and glanced each way again, before choosing the left - it was shorter. "Ken?" Jade soon came to another tee - and at each end was another branching. This place was a maze."KEN?!" she shouted, growing impatient. She leaned back against the wall behind her, and shut her eyes. What if she got impossibly lost, and died while he was off doing whatever he was doing? She took a deep breath to sigh - and caught a whiff of baking ham. Her eyes popped open; he was cooking. She remembered something about him muttering about food. She moved off towards the smell, and used it as a sort of homing device for where he was. Around the next corner was a larger room, bigger than the ones that she\'d walked past. In the middle was a rather large table - impossibly large for one guy. On it, to her delight, was a not-so-huge display of foods - perfectly enough for two people - possibly four. Ham, Chicken, Eggs, Carrots - all of the things she loved. Then again, it was things that almost anyone would like. "Where did you GET all this stuff?" she spoke, walking up to Ken, whom was laying some multi grain rolls on the table. His eyes flicked up to her, as if he hadn\'t expected her - but almost immediately, his eyes softened.

"It wasn\'t easy - everything converts to a digital form here. Humans are easily converted because of the soul, but things like food are so complex with dna and flavor and whatnot, it all becomes something different. It\'s almost as hard as getting a silken blouse over. Do you have any clue how hard it was to try and figure out what real world fabric becomes silk here?"

"You brought it all over?"

"Yes. I raided my family\'s fridge, and my mother\'s closet. I took everything back that I didn\'t need, of course." Jade had completely forgotten that he had a family. Ironically, it was as if he were a totally different person; like a character in a video game. Up until now, she\'d forgotten that he was more than the Emperor turned soft.

"When did you ever get time to do that?" Ken smiled, and stepped around the rectangular table to stand closer to her.

"When you were sleeping. I didn\'t just plop you into a bath asleep and leave you there, you know. You slept several hours in my bed." In HIS bed?

"You only have one bed in this place?..."

"Why do I need more? It\'s just me and Wormmon...And the other digimon slaves."

"You have an entire castle to yourself and a bunch of digimon, and there\'s only things for yourself? Doesn\'t that get lonely?" Ken\'s eyes flickered a sliver of loneliness - but as quick as it appeared, he fought it down, and a colder, more stern look overtook him - the Emperor side, she supposed.

"That\'s what the real world is for. This game is fun most of the time, though." Game? He thought this place was a game? WAS it a game?

"No one told -me- it was a game..." Ken gave a deep chuckle.

"Did you think this whole place was real? Do you honestly think you can get sucked through a computer into a digital world? This is Virtual! Digital!" Now it started to make a bit more sense - what this place really was. "It\'s a video game, and I intend to win." Something dawned on Jade that she hadn\'t thought of before - this was a game to be won.

"What\'s the goal, though?"

"Isn\'t it obvious? Total domination. This place has no real government, no real hierarchy - It\'s just raw, and barren. It just has those silly Sovereign Digimon. It needs a leader. A King. An-"

"-Emperor? Jade interrupted, sitting down in a chair as the conversing Ken pulled one out for her.

"Exactly. You learn quickly."

"Hmm. I\'m guessing that Davis and the others are trying to stop you?"

"Not exactly," he replied, sitting himself across from her. "They\'re moreover disagreeing with how I\'m doing it. I do draw the line at murdering humans, but mostly anything else goes."

"What about that Cody kid?" As soon as the words fell from her lips, she knew she would regret it - and indeed she was right. Ken rose from his chair, hands on the table. In a dangerous, calmly passive-aggressive tone, he replied, his face shrouded by his hair.

"I did not murder him. I left him to die. It was his own fault; it wasn\'t even him I wanted, but he stepped into the temple and triggered it. Murder is an intentional act of taking life; I didn\'t do that. I even let them go." As if her prior statement weren\'t enough, she kept talking.

"So, if you slipped off a ledge because I tripped you, and you caught a root, but I chose not to lift you up, that\'s not murder?"

"That\'s completely different."

"How?"

"Because I didn\'t trip him on purpose; he tripped himself."

"Would a Judge in the real world see it that way?" Jade spoke. But, after an unnerving silence, she chose to try digging herself out of this hole. "I can see why you\'d do anything to win if it\'s just a game; I can also see why the others would want to stop you if they think it\'s real. Maybe there\'s a way to convince them?"

"...No. They won\'t listen to me. Or you, anymore."

"Why won\'t they listen to ME?" she questioned, as the angered look in Ken\'s body faded, and his face rose, still containing the Emperor look.

"Because they\'ll think I corrupted you, and will try to tell you I lied to you. Even if you were to go back now, they\'d never trust you again." As a flashing triggered memory, his words reminded her of her new friend.

"Requimon - where\'s Requimon?"

"He\'s fine. But please, eat something - I\'ll let you see him after. There\'s no sense going weak from hunger - I\'ll explain everything after."





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Davis laid in his bed, the same way he had been for the last several days, simply flopped over. He\'d only get up to pee, and even that was barely manageable. His new girlfriend was gone. Kidnapped by the Digimon Emperor. Stolen away because he had to make her wait behind. It was his fault; and now, lord knew what was happening to her. "Jade\'s gone..." he muttered to everything anyone asked him or told him. "Jade\'s gone, she\'s gone...My fault."

"How long has he been like that, Jun?" Kari asked, with a nervous looking TK in tow.

"Days. He won\'t eat or anything. He\'s crashed. Davis is gone, that\'s just a sack of mumbles." Kari sighed. There wasn\'t anything they could do - especially with Cody in the state he was in, and not with Davis like this now.

"Can I try talking to him?"

"Good luck..." Jun muttered, stepping out of Kari\'s way. Kari stepped through Davis\' door, and over to his bed.

"Davis?" she probed, sitting next to him. Her hand went to his head, and raked through the goggle-less matt of hair. "Come on Davis, snap out of it..."





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"Now. Rules are simple around here, Jade. Follow them, and life will be easy. Don\'t question my orders when I give them, they have a reason. They\'ll only come when there\'s no other way of controlling you. I mean that in the most extreme respects; I\'m not going to control your every move. Of course, as well as that, you must trust me. It\'s not going to be a good life for either of us in this game if you don\'t."

"That\'s it? Trust and obey?"

"Yes. Now, you\'re allowed to roam this castle free and clear, and so is Requimon - but, he is to act nicely. If he ever lashes out at me, he will be muzzled, put in claw-balls, and have his wings tied shut. Perhaps even dedigivolved. Neither of you are to leave the castle without notifying me and getting permission. You can go home to the real world once I know you won\'t run from me, or go back to Davis - I will not have you running with him. Conflict of interest, you understand. Just to comfort you about it all, I will not be forcing you into any sexual situation that you don\'t want."

"What happened to making me scream?..."

"That was more for show - for Davis. It\'s a bit cruel, but very hilarious."

"Poor kid\'s probably off moping," she added with a mildly amused smile. Ken blinked in surprise; she wasn\'t mad?

"You don\'t seem broken about it." Jade\'s cheeks reddened faintly.

"He had a secret that he never intended on telling me, so I slept with him. Just so happened that he had morals, so I couldn\'t just tell him it was a one-night-stand - then I\'d never get in on the secret. Which I did, and here I am..." Ken\'s brow raised with a note of impression.

"And so, meeting me on the soccer field was a complete accident?"

"I knew you were going to be there - I just happened to jump on an opportunity."

"Well, I\'m impressed. I didn\'t think you\'d be THAT evil."

"It\'s not evil - its dedication." Ken gave a faint nod, though knowing within himself that it was much more than dedication. He turned himself towards a door, his mind turning to other things.

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AN: Gotta love digimon song lyrics for song titles. :o