[Digimon] (Daisuke,Ken,Kaizer) "Paradox" Meta: Theme 04: Time Travel
Title: Paradox Author: appleqb Fandom: Digimon Pairing: Daisuke,Ken,Kaizer (though no actual pairing type things in this) Rating: PG Warnings: Nothing really. Rambling internal monologue, I guess. Theme: Time Travel Author's notes: This is an excerpt from a longer story that is, as yet, not written. This starts somewhere towards the middle so to preface this: In episode 27, after Ken and Daisuke become jogress partners, they rush into the destroyed base to stop an explosion. They succeed, only to have a second explosion go off and knock them out. When they come to, they find the base rebuilt around them. Eager to find who is responsible, they rush to the control room expecting to find Arukinimon, they find The Digimon Kaizer instead. Ken correctly deduces that they have some how been transported two years into the past and decided the best way to get back to their time is to have the Kaizer build them a time machine. He disguises Daisuke as long lost friend Ryo Akiyama, and they confront the Kaizer. Here we go.
Ken leaned down slowly and whispered, ‘Traitor,” causing a flurry of motion.
The Kaizer spun around, wide eyes and Ken snapped up, back ramrod straight; not to avoid the Kaizer’s movement, but because of the flare of recognition.
As the Kaizer stared up at him in shock, Ken stared back, reeling. He remembered this! Though, two minutes ago he was sure this had never happened to him, now he could see it happening, as if it were unfolding in some inexplicable reverse déjà vu. This was dangerous, he thought suddenly. They weren’t just in the past; they were in his past, rewriting it as they went.
This could end up a disaster; he never should have tried this. So many things could go wrong. If he left the Digital World and never came back, if he stopped trying to take it over, if he recognized Daisuke... that was the worst thing that could possibly happen.
If the Kaizer recognized Daisuke he would stop at nothing to take him. Ken had always thought Daisuke looked little like Ryo and, if he were being honest with himself, it had made him fixated on Daisuke from the beginning. But it would have only taken a little extra push, a bit more attention and he never would have let them take Daisuke back. He, the Kaizer, would have kept him, would keep him and do something horrible, maybe even something unforgivable. And if he did something to Daisuke, who had never hated or given up on him, which made Daisuke turn away...
Daisuke would have never asked him back, he wouldn’t have come to the world to help stop the warp, they wouldn’t have been caught in that explosion, they wouldn’t have ended here for the Kaizer to see Daisuke; a time paradox.
“What is this,” the Kaizer said, slowly recovering from the initial shock of seeing himself.
Ken snapped back to the situation at hand, there wasn’t any time to worry about things he couldn’t control and there was nothing he could do to stop this now. He just had to find a way to keep this from spiraling out of control and he had to stick to the plan.
“You have betrayed everything you ever stood for. You betrayed Him. You said you would never forget, and you have. Traitor. Liar,” Ken said, feeling the words cut the Kaizer and himself deeply, even as he tried to keep a steady voice. He was only repeating things he had though about himself over the years, but to hear them spoke out loud now, to remember them echoing out of his past, it hurt so much.
“No,” the Kaizer said, clutching at his head and knocking the glasses off in the process. “Shut up! You’re not real.”
“I’m as real as you are,” Ken said to himself. Louder, he said, “You can’t shut me up. You can’t change the truth—”
The Kaizer launched at him so fast, Ken almost didn’t have the time to react. He side-stepped the first whip crack and ducked the second; he had been half expecting the Kaizer to try something like that so it hadn’t been a surprise.
But then the Kaizer stopped and turned. Daisuke had made an aborted movement forward to stop the attack, which had caught the Kaizer’s attention from the corner of his eye. Now they were frozen in placing, staring at each other. And though he had no idea of what was going through Daisuke’s head, he remembered exactly what the Kaizer was thinking, which was why he was able so sidle to him and gentle remove the whip. “You may have forgotten him,” he whispered, “but he never forgot you.”
“Ryo?” The Kaizer breathed, taking a step toward him. Daisuke nodded and the Kaizer practically ran the rest of the way, stopping right in front of him, hand out and hovering, not sure if he were allowed to touch or if it would make everything disappear. “Ryo. Ryo, I’m so sorry. Ryo, please.”
“He won’t speak,” Ken said, walking up to them. Because of course Daisuke sounded nothing like the real Ryo, but that was nothing compared to the problems that would happen if the Kaizer recognized Daisuke’s voice when he saw him for the first time next year. “He has nothing to say to you.”
“I’m sorry. If I could have, I would have gone back. I would.”
“Not back,” Ken said, “Forward.”
The Kaizer looked at him sharply, eyes red and near tears; Ken completely sympathized, of course.
“He’s gone. Do you ever think you will see him again?”
The Kaizer looked at Daisuke quickly again, he was afraid “Ryo” had disappeared during his distraction. “He’s not dead.”
“No, he isn’t.” Ken said, still believing that now as much as ever, “But he isn’t here either.”
The Kaizer turned his back on both of them, shoulders stiff with tension, “What do I have to do?”
Ken closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Maybe there was such a thing as destiny, and no matter what you did, the outcome wouldn’t change. Because, it hadn’t happened like this, but this had happen; a sudden redirection of his attention, the insane idea to build a time machine that had never worked Only, Ken now knew that it would work, and he and Daisuke would get home. He just had to let the events unfold.
“The Digital World can wait. You know what you have to do.”