I don't own digimon.

Session 17

Uncertainty

An hour had passed since Polly and Aegiochusmon returned to their ruined camp. In that time, the group had gotten to work putting their ramshackle base back together. While not quite the same as it once was, it would serve its purpose for the moment.

"Care to explain to my slut and I what happened?" Aegiochusmon shouted and focused his gaze on Elena.

The gale corsair currently sat on the ground, cradling her head in her palms.

"I fucked up." she whispered as tears began to roll down her face. "I shouldn't have made that call."

Everyone in camp that wasn't Elena stared towards her, confused by what she was even talking about.

"What are you even talking about?" Lily inquired and watched her human sigh.

"If I hadn't made that phone call to Bob, we wouldn't be in this situation." Elena whispered, making her way towards her tent after speaking. Carinamon and Lily followed right behind, but made sure they weren't getting too much into their master's space.

"You didn't know." Joey answered and Elena stopped. "Sometimes, hindsight is 20-20."

He got no response, only for the gale corsair to reluctantly turn around.

"Then did I do the right thing?" Elena inquired as she sat herself down. "While Alice did lie to us, she probably had to have some reason for doing it."

Her teammates and their digimon looked among each other, possibly debating the exact same question in their head.

"If she did, she should've told us." Aaron remarked and got harsh gazes from both Polly and Aegiochusmon. "We could've handled it as a group."

"Says the guy who had a bunch of armed thugs ambush us." Polly shouted and took a step forward.

The detective took a deep breath and sighed.

"Yes, so that they and F- Aegiochusmon could talk it out like normal people."

Polly didn't listen, choosing instead to slam her fist into Aaron. The detective stood there, weathering the blow he probably deserved.

"Then you should've been more upfront about it." Aegiochusmon added as the other members of the team stared towards the trio. "Or at the very least, you could've hinted at it better."

Elena walked over and cleared her throat, gazing at both the detective and the harem mage.

"Care to explain what may have transpired?"

Silence fell upon both men, with neither willing to swallow their pride in that very moment.

"Care to tell me, Polly?"

Polly took a deep breath and sighed. While it probably wouldn't be a good idea to give the corsair the entire story, she probably needed to know at least what happened.

"Aaron called in some of his 'friends' who had a bone to pick with Aegiochusmon." the monk whispered and turned her attention to Elena. "They drove up, grabbed Aegiochusmon, I went crazy and blacked out. When I woke up, I found myself in some castle. Afterwards, we walked back to camp and found it ruined."

Elena gave her a quick glance, only to shift it to back to Aaron and Aegiochusmon.

"If you had just told us about this, we could have settled this peacefully." the gale corsair shouted, only to get both a potion vial along with a burst of terra archens directed towards her. Like the punch though, she took both attacks head-on. "Thanks."

Both Aaron and Aegiochusmon stared to the girl, unsure of how to answer.

"Your welcome?" both answered as Elena smiled, taking one more deep breath in the process.

"All in favor of finding Alice and getting answers, say 'Aye'." the gale corsair explained and held her hand up. "Aye."

The other members looked towards their 'leader', unsure of what had gotten into her. Yet, they were willing to go along with it for the moment. If nothing else, they could just step up as leader should something go wrong.

"Aye."

"Aye."

"Aye."

'It's settled then." Elena whispered and turned her gaze to her teammates. "Now, let's get some sleep. We have a busy day tomorrow."

With that, the other members of the group and their digimon followed suit, leaving just the gale corsair and both of her partners to their own devices.

"Are you alright, Elena?" Lily inquired as she watched her human sit down by the fire.

"No, I'm not."

The gale corsair took another deep breath, allowing the smoke and ash into her body. For as confident as she had felt a couple seconds ago, all that seemed to remain was sadness. She pulled her phone out, staring through the short list of contacts contained within. Most of them were staff of Drogaciji Academy, for the times when things went horribly wrong. After that, were a couple of 'friends' from her very short time at school. Though, she wasn't quite sure if she considered them that way. They were more like acquaintances than anything else. This left one final number in the list. Alice's.

Elena had gotten it during the bus ride to Drogaciji Academy, having asked the gambler nicely for it. Unusually, Alice was more than happy to give it, in exchange for her number. She tried to do the same with Joey, but he was occupied with talking with Aegiochusmon over something.

What followed, was a single tap followed by a dial tone. Then silence, as if the person on the other end was debating whether or not they would pick up. And finally, nothing.

"The person you called could not be reached at the moment. Please leave a message after the beep." the 'operator' explained and Elena sighed, waiting for the magical beep that would let say what she had meant to say hours before.

"Alice, it's me. I didn't intend for this to go the way that it did. All I ask is for you come back and tell why you lied. I don't care if you're Alice Zwingli, Suiko Tanaka or whatever your real name possibly is. That doesn't matter to me in the slightest. I just want you to come back..."

The gale corsair hung up after that, blowing the fire out and making her way back to the tent. Carinamon and Lily followed right behind, making sure to give their chosen a bit of distance for the moment. Afterwards, they allowed the calming embrace of sleep to take them in.

.

"Is that it?" A voice announced, turning to face the group of figures that were with him.

The person in question was a teenage boy, dressed in a white t-shirt with brown jeans and a pair of loafers. His brown hair was cut short, complimenting his green eyes. The rest of the group were an odd bunch. They consisted of a void mage, some kitsune hybrid digimon, a guy with some anger issues, a pokemon fan and himself, Nora Karnoc. Even their digimon were a weird bunch. It was like a variety pack of trading cards, including: A poisonous turtle, a guilimon rip-off, some magical girl thing obsessed with sex, just to name a few. And yet, they were united under one goal. It was a simple one, but that was all they had really needed on their journey.

"Yep." the void mage remarked, taking a quick glance away from her map. In the distance, one could see faint outline of a seventh figure, a teenage girl. Why she was heading away from her 'teammates' wasn't quite known. Possibly, she was following a hunch she had. Or, she wanted to take her own path without interference.

Whatever the reason possibly was, her teammates didn't seem to notice her absence. Possibly, it was for the better. But who could really know in this place.

"Wonderful." one of the members added and stopped, taking their time to set camp for the night. Tomorrow would be their magical day. Maybe then, some sort of answers could be found. Even if it meant having to beat their opponents apart in the process...

Notes:

This is the third time that I've rewritten this chapter. Personally, I prefer this version. Especially since the previous version had stuff that I forgot about and hadn't corrected.

.

Next chapter: A battle of two SYOC Teams, Alpha vs Elena's Group!