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"WORMMON!!!"

Archnemon paused in the doorway as Ken screamed the name of his Digimon partner. It seemed odd... disturbing for some reason. Ken had been desperately calling out to... someone. He was pleading with whoever it was to help him, like they were standing right in front of him, only it was as if they refused to assist him, abandoning him. The names he had used, Daisuke, Miyako, Iori, Takeru, Hikari. Those were his pathetic little friends. And, of course, there was his pitiful Digimon partner. However, his actions were odd. She didn't recall asking any Bakemon to pose as his friends and toy with his mind... yet. She shrugged and began to dismiss his actions as mere hallucinations, brought on by the beating, but she wondered. Were the images of his friends Ken was seeing inflicted by the pain and blood loss or perhaps... something else?

Archnemon glanced back at Ken. He had collapsed and was lying face down, unconscious, on the stone floor. His shirt was ripped almost in half and the pale gray fabric was stained red with blood. His back had been torn open from the repeated whip slashes and he lay sprawled in a pool of his own blood. It filled her with a sense of sick pleasure to see him like this, defenseless and with blood flowing from the wounds she caused. After a moment of reveling in his pain she tore her gaze away from his beaten form and focused her attention to the matter at hand: his hallucinations.

"Was what he saw really brought on by the pain? Or was it that the powers of darkness are taking hold over him faster than I could have imagined?" she mused.

After a minute of puzzlement, she shrugged. Whatever the reason, Ken's will and resistance were growing extremely weak. His trust in his friends was crumbling so effortlessly. All of his fears and doubts were so easy to amplify and use against him; he made them all so obvious. After everything she had done, he was becoming more vulnerable by the minute. Archnemon smirked. It wouldn't be long before he would give in completely...

But none of that would happen until he regained consciousness. That wouldn't be for several hours at least. Of course, his wounds would also have to be tended to. Even then, he would be in no condition for any more physical torture. She would have to think of a different way to break him. And she would eventually have to feed him; she wasn't going through all of this trouble just to have him die. Archnemon sighed in annoyance. That brat was giving her more trouble than he should have.

She morphed back into her gijinka form and walked out of the cell, heaving the door closed and bolting it shut behind her. She paused for a moment to touch the cool stone of the lock and smirked.

"If only Ken knew what surrounded him. He hasn't realized yet that he is in more danger than he thinks," she whispered.

Turning away from the cell and her pathetic prisoner, Archnemon began walking briskly down the halls, searching for Mummymon. Her boots clicked authoritatively on the stone floors, causing her dark tower Digimon creations to scurry out of her path. She found Mummymon in the control room, fiddling with the old monitors they had uncovered earlier. He looked up as she entered and instantly brightened when he noticed her.

"How did it go, my sweet?" he asked. Normally, Archnemon would yell at him for his ridiculous nicknames, but the feeling of her upcoming success with Ken had put her in a good mood, so she paid no attention to them.

"Better than was expected. I don't think he'll be able to hold out for a couple more days, much less a week. It's surprisingly easy to twist a child's mind, especially one as naive and vulnerable as Ken's," she replied.

"Perfect."

"Oh, Mummymon, do a favor for me."

"Anything, dearest!"

"Summon one of the dark tower Digimon. I need one of them to tend to Ken. Let's just say I had to resort to some... alternate methods to convince him of some things." Mummymon shook his head in mock disbelief.

"I can't believe it; doing such cruel things to an innocent child," he said sadly, but smiled. "That's why I love you." Archnemon rolled her eyes but smirked at his approval of her methods.

"Don't worry about Ken. I know the perfect Digimon we can send to help him," Mummymon said, snickering. Archnemon's eyes narrowed in realization.

"I see what you mean. I have a wonderfully horrid idea for what we can do with him. It might make our work easier as well," she said, smiling. Suddenly, she gasped as she remembered something.

"Mummymon, did you do as I asked you to?" she asked, concerned. He smiled and picked up a cassette tape that was lying on a monitor. He held it out to Archnemon.

"Here. I recorded it all, just like you asked me to," he said. She took the cassette and smiled, relieved.

"Good work."

"What are you going to do with it?" Mummymon inquired, puzzled. Archnemon looked over at the monitors he had been working on.

"Have you gotten them to work yet?"

"I think they'll work in about half an hour. Why?" Archnemon's smile widened and her eyes took on a malicious gleam.

"First, we'll take care of Ken. Then, fix these monitors. Once they work, I want you to find his little friends for me. I'm positive that they're searching for him by now. I think they have to hear a little something, just to let them know how their precious Ken is doing."