No... I-I didn’t want this to happen! Please, it’s not my fault!
“Rainbow?”
She told me she didn’t need my help! I never thought she’d turn out like this!
“Rainbow, are you okay?”
“Gyah!”
Rainbow Dash catapulted awake at the sensation of something brushing over her shoulder, her head jolting upwards off of the couch. In the darkness of the living room she fumbled about, violently swatting away the foreign object that had violated her personal space.
“Ouch! Rainbow, what the heck?!”
“Huh? Yolei?” Rainbow looked up towards the source of the voice, barely making out Yolei’s silhouette in the darkness. “Don’t sneak up on me like that while I’m sleeping! You scared me half to death!”
“Sorry, Rainbow,” Yolei replied. “I was just worried about you is all. You seemed to be having a nightmare.”
“Yeah? So what? What are you even doing here, anyway?”
“Uh, well, you see... How do I put this...” Yolei paused awkwardly, trying to find the words. “You were snoring kind of loudly, and my older siblings kind of went and told me to tell you to knock it off. It wasn’t my idea, I swear!”
“What!?” Rainbow exclaimed defensively. “I do not snore!”
“Rainbow, shh!” Yolei hushed. “They’ll hear you!”
“Rrgh, fine,” Rainbow grumbled. “What am I supposed to do about it, though? If they don’t like my snoring, that’s their problem. Now could you please let me sleep?”
“Rainbow, wait,” said Yolei. “There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Ugh, can’t it wait until morning?”
“Rainbow, something’s been bothering you, hasn’t it?”
Rainbow looked up at Yolei incredulously. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve been acting strangely as of late. You’ve barely spoken a word since you arrived on Earth, and now you’re having nightmares. Is there anything wrong?”
“It’s fine,” said Rainbow Dash. “There’s nothing to worry about, I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure?” Said Yolei, concerned.
“It’s fine. We’ll talk about it later, alright? Just let me sleep.”
“If you say so...” Yolei gave Rainbow Dash one last worried look before walking away. Rainbow yawned loudly before laying her head back down, her thoughts turning towards the past as she drifted back to sleep.
Why did I have to be reminded of her? Why now?
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Ruin. Decay. Emptiness. The wasteland stretched as far as the eye could see, devoid of life and compassion. The very earth itself looked as though it had been scorched, leaving nothing but an empty waste, where once vivid ecosystems had been burnt to ash.
Amidst the blasted landscape Ken stood, staring vacantly at the dystopian nightmare before him.
“Where am I?” he wondered aloud.
Suddenly, as though beckoned by his words, apocalyptic scenes began to flash before his eyes, showing glimpses of a world where all had been brought to dust. He saw an entire world in the grip of terror, and a once great city reduced to a smoking ruin.
“What’s happening?” He cried out in confusion and terror. “What is this!?”
Ken’s words went ignored, as the nightmarish scenes continued to flash right before his eyes, the screams of the innocent filling his ears. Ken closed his eyes tightly and clasped his ears against his head, but the horrifying sights and sounds continued to assault him, undeterred by his feeble attempts to shut them out.
“No... No more! Please, make it stop!” Ken sobbed desperately, collapsing onto his knees. “Please, enough! I can’t take any more of this!”
“What’s the matter, Ken?”
The sudden voice had cut through the hellish visions with ease, leaving Ken with a newfound clarity. Free of the nightmares, he stood up and turned towards the source of the voice, and came face to face with his worst fear imaginable. The familiar spiky hair, the elaborate blue jumpsuit and cape, the soulless gaze hidden beneath the gold-trimmed sunglasses.
“This is what you wanted, wasn’t it?” said the Digimon Emperor. “You dedicated your existence to the suffering of others.”
“You...” Ken’s voice trembled with anger as he stared straight into his own eyes.
“Is something wrong, Ken? Are you afraid to look in the mirror?”
“No! You do not get to tell me who I am!” Ken snapped. “I’ve moved on from what I was! The Digimon Emperor is gone!”
“And yet here I am, standing right in front of you,” the Emperor calmly retorted. “Face it, Ken: despite how far you’ve come, your past mistakes continue to define you. Until you learn to accept that, this is only going to keep happening.”
“What are you talking about?” Ken demanded.
“Just look at Vespimon. She seems awfully familiar to you, does she not? A spitting image of your beloved partner, Stingmon. She represents every mistake you’ve ever made, every atrocity you’ve ever committed! She is a reflection of your past, and an embodiment of the sins that continue to weigh down on your heart to this day!”
“What’s your point? What are you getting at?”
The Emperor let out a low, ominous chuckle. “You know exactly what I’m getting at, Ken. She’s the part of you that you never wished to acknowledge, the part of you that you fooled yourself into thinking was long gone. And as long as you keep denying it, she’ll only become stronger. After all, who are we other than the result of our past?”
As he finished his speech, a sudden gust of wind blew through the wasteland, the air circling around the Emperor. His body turned translucent as he slowly began to fade out of existence.
“No! You’re wrong!” Ken screamed. “Vespimon is the antithesis of everything that I stand for! I won’t let her win, you hear me? And I don’t need you to tell me otherwise!” He lunged forward to assault the ghostly image, who cackled as he vanished into thin air. Ken fell through the empty space and collapsed onto his side, leaving himself prone on the ground.
As he lay down, a massive shadow fell over him and he looked up to see what he could only describe as an abomination. It was the silhouette of a massive, multi-limbed beast, its body devoid of all light and color. A large horn protruded from the top of its head, and sprouting from its shoulders were two massive cylindrical growths of unknown function.
Ken looked up, eyes wide with terror, as the monster swiftly brought one of its massive claws down on top of him.
————————
“Gah!”
Ken suddenly awoke with a jolt, a cold sweat running down his forehead. His heart still pounding from the nightmare, he sat up in his bed and briefly surveyed the room. Wormmon still lay at his feet snoring gently, completely unaware of the whole experience.
Reaching out towards his partner, he briefly stroked Wormmon across the head. Ken smiled as Wormmon reacted to his touch, muttering happily in his sleep.
“Don’t worry buddy, everything’s going to be okay.”
Giving his partner one last look, Ken lay back down on the bed, drifting into a dreamless sleep for the rest of the night.