Chapter 46 - Genisis of Evil (Pt.2)

Ken groaned softly and then used his eyebrows to lift himself. He opened his eyes and blinked- there were two people standing on the other side of his bed, a middle-aged man and woman. As he sat up, the man said, "Oh, he's awake!"
"Ken, honey, are you alright?" asked the woman. Ken stared at them.
"Who are you?" he asked. The two people gasped, "Well?"
"Ken!" the woman cried, "Don't you recognize who we are?" She turned to the man, who looked at her.
"It's like he has amnesia." said the man.
'No,' thought Ken, 'I didn't lose my memory, I lost my heart. And until I find it, I won't know who I am or who anyone else is either.'
"How can he not know who his own parents are?" asked the woman. Ken continued to stare at the couple with an oddly sad look upon his face.
'You don't know me either,' he silently told the woman, 'How could you if I don't know myself? Who am I?'
"Ken!" exclaimed the woman, "Don't worry, you're safe now! We'll find the finest doctor in the world!"
"Ken, while you were sleeping, your mother and I realized we were trying to make you more like Sam without really knowing it." said the man. Ken turned to look at him again, "We're very sorry. We should have seen the son we had, instead of spending our time constantly looking for the son that we lost."
"Forgive us," implored the woman (who was apparently his mother despite the fact she didn't look a thing like him), "Give us a second chance!"
'I don't know what it is they want from me,' thought Ken, 'How can I forgive them if I don't understand what they did?'
"Sam is gone forever," said the man (who was apparently his father despire the fact that he didn't look a thing like his son either), his eyes tearing up, "We know that. But we don't want to lose you, too."
"Just be Ken," his mother said tearfully, not looking at her son, "Just be yourself. Ken, just try. Just try. Please, for me?"
'Why is she crying,' Ken asked himself as his own eyes filled with tears, 'I don't understand. When I'm sad, I just go numb. Wait- there's tears in my eyes, too. Why am I crying? Is my heart closer than I think? Maybe these people and I can share the pain and sorrow of losing Sam together.

Ken was up and dressed and staring out the window, watching the sun set behind the buildings. As he did so, his mother came up behind him.
"Ken, honey, dinner is ready." When he didn't turn around, she touched him on the shoulder. He turned around with a start, "Hungry? Oh, sorry I startled you. Uh...mm...It's okay. You can eat whenever you're ready."
Ken didn't answer her, but turned back to the window. There was a picture in a frame on the ledge in front of him and Ken picked it up. On it was a boy with short, messey, dark blue hair and thick glasses.
"Oh?" Ken's mother said, "That's Sam. He was your brother. We were all devestated after his accident. You were the one affected the most."

Emi finally made it to the apartment. She had managed to get lost several times trying to navigate the bus system, but she had finally made it. Sunmon stirred inside the bag she was holding against her side.
"I still don't see why we gotta do this, Emi." he complained.
"I don't really know..." Emi said, "But...something just tells me this is the right thing to do."
"Yeah, well, if anyone asks it was your idea." Sunmon grumbled.
Emi squished him back inside (making him grumble louder) before ringing the doorbell. After a few minutes of waiting, a woman came to the door. Shortly after her, a man came as well.
"Hello?" she asked.
"Oh, um, hi!" Emi said, trying to sound cheerful, "Uh, my name is Emi and I was wondering if I could see Ken?" The man and woman (Emi presumed they were Ken's parents) exchanged confused looks, "Uh, I swear, I'm not a crazed fan-girl. I just...I, uh, saw Ken before he came back home and he seemed really upset, so I wanted to see...how he was...doing." she finished lamely.
"You know Ken?" Mr. Ichijouji asked.
"Well, not very well." Emi admitted, "I played him in soccor once and we lost, but uh, we haven't seen each other that much. I swear, I'm not a fan-girl. You can check my pockets and bag before I leave and make sure I didn't steal anything to sell on E-Bay."
"Well, I don't see why not. But...Ken isn't....Well, he's not himself." Mr. Ichijouji said, standing aside to let Emi in.
"Really? Is he okay?" Emi asked. His mother shook her head.
"We don't know. He can't seem to remember who anyone is, including himself."

Ken sat down at his computer in his still dark room. He sild the keyboard back and instantly drew away with a sharp in-take of breath. A black object along with a pink tag with some sort of symbol on it were sitting atop the black keys.
'I know what that is!' Ken thought. Images of a green-worm creature, "Oh, Wormmon! I know where to look now."
"Ken dear!" His mother called from outside his room, "A friend came to visit you and I made you both some nice tea!" She opened the door. It was empty, "Ken?! Where are you?! Not again!"
"Wait, he's gone?" Emi asked as she walked into the room. Ken's mother nodded, crying, "Don't worry! I think I know where he went. Er...I know this sounds crazy, but could you leave the room?"

Ken was wandering aimlessly in a barren, grey and brown land that might have been mistaken for the Forbidden Land of Duckies and Bunnies.
"I know this place," Ken told himself, "I've been here before. This is where I have to look."Then he started wandering around in the desert and after that an area that looked sort of like a jungle, only less leafy, "I know that this is where I will find my heart."
The thick grass gave way and he found himself on the top of small hill overlooking more hills that were covered in a patch-work pattern. Lots of small eggs were studded across the ground.
"Digi-Eggs!" He gasped, "Hundreds of them! What is this place?"
"This is Primary Village!" squeaked a voice from somewhere.
"Primary Village?" Ken repeated.
"That's right!" said the voice. Ken looked down to see a blue-ish blob with eyes and a small mouth sitting in a wicker basket a few inches from where he stood, "This is the place where all digimon are re-born and come back as Digi-Eggs!"
"Re-born?!" Ken exclaimed as he bent nearer to the baby digimon, "Wormmon too?!"
"That's right, digimon never die! They just get re-configured!" Ken laughed happily for the first time in what seemed like forever and then ran off. He froze suddenly and looked at all the eggs around him.
"Which egg is Wormmon's? It could be anyone of them!" (A/N: The first time I watched this I said to myself, "How much do you want to bet it's the girly pink one with hearts all over it?")Ken cried, "I can't remember! What did his digi-egg look like?"
He ran over and knelt beside a light pink one with darker pink circles on it, "Which one of these digi-eggs is Wormmon?! Just like I don't remember who I am or where I'm from!"
"You're the Digimon Emperor, aren'tcha?" asked another different voice. Ken looked around until he found another wicker basket, this one with an angry looking blue digimon with antennas a furry cream-colored beard that covered most of its body, "I'd recognize you even without your fancy clothes!"
With a short yelp, the little digimon launched himself at Ken. Ken threw his arms across his face to protect himself and the baby digimon bounced harmlessly of his elbow.
"Huh? The Digimon Emperor?" Ken repeated, "That's right, I was the Digimon Emperor. I've done so many terrible things. I was responsible for Wormmon and if I would have realized sooner the truth about the Digi-World, he'd still be here with me today!"
"You don't want to find Wormmon's Digi-Egg because you miss him," snapped another baby digimon, this one red and gelatinous, "You just don't want to feel guilty anymore about causing his destruction! After all you did, we're not going to welcome you back with open arms, even if we had them!"
"What do you think is going to happen?" demanded a small, cat-head with yellow eyes, "Wormon is just going to hatch so he can be treated badly by you all over again?"
"Wormmon won't come back to me? Just like my brother Sam didn't come back to me after he left." This is a truth I don't want to face. Wormmon isn't coming back. Sam isn't coming back either. I caused both of them to go away. I hated my brother for getting all the attention. I hated Wormmon because I thought he wasn't worthy of me. Ken fell to his kneeds, "The truth is, I wasn't worthy of him!" These hands...these hands have caused so much pain. Sure, put a text book in them and I'm genius. But give me a whip and I'm the evil Digimon Emperor. How could I have allowed this to go so far? "If I only had the chance, I'd say 'I'm sorry, Sam! I'm sorry, Wormmon!'"
"It's too late for you now!" the red baby digimon said angrily, "You can't turn back time. What's done is done! You've made your bed, now lie in it! I would go on, but I can't think of any more cliches."
"The point is, you can't run away from the past." added the cat digimon, "You've caused enough damage here, so why don't you go crawl back under the Control Spire you came from?!"
"Can't I start over?" Ken asked tearfully, "I know I've caused you all a lot of pain as the Digimon Emperor, but I'm truely sorry now. Please forgive me! The cruel things I've done in the past will always be with me, but I've gotta move on with my life. I promise to concentrate on the good things I've done in the past, not the evil. I'll use my memories of Sam and of Wormmon to make me stronger, but I can't seem to remember any of the good memories; only the bad ones keep playing in my head over and over again."
Ken stood up with tears running along his cheeks, "I've blocked out the good ones. I must force myself to remember the beginning. I must think back to the first time I used Sam's digivice to go to the Digital World!"

There was a sandstorm. Ken and Wormmon were walking through, buffeted left and right by the constant stream of sand. They were with another, older boy with light brown hair. Suddenly, a jack-rabbit digimon burst out of the sand beneath their feet and lunged and Ken.
Wormmon shot between his partner and the opposing digimon and butted the other digimon out of the way. It ran off.
"Wormmon!" Ken cried, racing to Wormmon's side, "Wormmon! Are you okay?"
"I'm okay." Wormmon said, "It would take a lot more than him to beat me."
"Right!"
"Ken, I'm really glad that I'm your digimon and we're partners. You're gentle and kind. That's why I like you."
"I'm gentle?"
"But being gentle is not enough. You have to be strong as well. Otherwise, Ken..."
"Otherwise what?"
"You're gentleness and kindness will be overpowered by those who are evil. It happens. The digivice you have belongs to you and not Sam. You're a Digi-Destined and no one can take that away from you. Evil forces will try to tell you otherwise, but you can't listen to them. Never forget who you are."
"I won't!"
"You promise?"

"I broke my promise because I did forget. My whole life I've been trying to be someone else. Whether it was acting tought as the Digimon Emperor or trying to be more like Sam." He voice started to break and soone he was crying again, "I've never been Ken! I'm going to spend the rest of my life being the kind and gentle person that Wormmon wanted me to be!"
"Well," a voice suddenly broke into his thoughts, "I think that's a pretty good goal."
Ken looked up. There was a blonde girl standing a little ways off from him, smiling. She looked familiar, but he couldn't place her face.
"Hey there." The girl said, still smiling, "You ran off again and that caused some problems. Luckily you weren't that hard to find."
"Who...who are you?"
"Me? I'm Emi. It's nice to meet you finally." All at once, a birght pink light shot out of his pocket. Ken dug it out and looked at the small crest in his palm.
"What's this?"
"That's your Crest of Kindness." Emi explained.
"Are you sure it's mine?"
"Positive. Look." She pointed to an egg a few hills away. Ken followed her finger and saw and egg glowing the same pink as the tag.
Ken made his way towards the pink, heart-patterened egg (A/N: Told you so.), "That egg is different from the rest. Something tells me I've seen it before. It's glowing, just like the Crest."
"Well, go on." Emi said, gesturing towards the egg, "grab it." Ken looked at her, still confused and not able to understand why he recognized her, but did as he was told. The light around the egg grew brighter and brighter. And then it transformed into a wicker basket with a light green baby digimon with a leaf covering it's face inside it.
"Who are...you?" asked Ken. The leaf moved, revealing the baby digimon's small black eyes and pink cheeks.
"Hi, Ken." it said. Ken burst into tears all over again, "I'm Leafmon, the baby form of Wormmon." Ken smiled through the tears and picked Leafmon up.
"I kept looking for you. I never stopped."
"Ken, thank you. You took a little detour getting there, but you kept your promise."
"What promise?"
"Of being kind and gentle."
"Thank you for giving me a second chance." Now Wormmon was crying too.
"And thank you, Emi.
"Huh? For what?" Asked Emi. She had turned around so she wouldn't intrude on the emotional scene.
"For making sure Ken was okay."
"No problem. I plan on sticking around and making sure everything is alright."
"Thanks."
"Hey, Ken." Emi said, smiling and reaching one hand towards him, "Your parents are worried. I think we had better get you home."
I wondered, if I had been the one to disappear instead of Sam, would Wormmon be the only that missed me? I don't think so.

Ken's parents were on the couch, his mom crying again, "This time he might not come home!"
"Don't say such things." his father said, touching her lightly on the shoulder, "He'll be back, I'm sure of it. Emi said she'd go find him."
As he said that, the door to Ken's room opened. First Ken and then Emi stepped out of the room.
"Ken!" His parents cried, getting up and embracing him, "Where have you been? We've been so worried!"
"He was on the balcony," Emi explained.
Now I understand why she's crying. She missed me. Just like I missed Wormmon.
"Mama?" Ken cried, "Mama?"
"Huh?" His father asked, "What did you say?"
"He said Mama! That's means- He knows me!" Mrs. Ichijouji said. Emi stepped out the way, smiling again.
"Mama! I'll give you that second chance, if I can have one, too!" Both of his parents smiled and started crying, too. Soon Ken was being hugged by everyone but Emi.
"Thanks," Ken choked through his tears, "For being such great parents."
And now I can finally say it. Thanks. Thank you Sam, for helping me find my heart.

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