I don't own digimon.

Session 49

My Road

Memories.

Alice had that Suiko consciousness spirit thing. Joey had his tea-obsessed purple pig thing. Polly had Aegiochusmon and that pudding-cup hating robot. And Aaron had his notebooks. But for Elena, there wasn't anything. To the person standing before her, she was just his possible puppet to use for personal gain. Which she definitely wasn't.

"Oh look! Even god is rooting for you!" her opponent shouted. "Isn't that nice. Also, get out of my sight and go fuck yourself."

The author decided to just ignore the response. It was easier and much saner in the long run. Even if he did want to respond with an inappropriate comment back.

Elena only rolled her eyes and just stood there. It wouldn't really matter what she did at this point, his action was still the same. She would be rapidly aged up until she died, with a whole bunch of fake memories thrown in for good measure. The gale corsair was certain those were only thrown in to just fuck with her on the way down, all because her parents weren't up to the same point as everyone else at the same time.

"Quite hilarious, isn't it?" Timekeeper whispered and cracked a smile. "In the end, your fate was already dictated. There is no choice, only the illusion of it."

Elena didn't even respond to his comment and continued to stand there in silence. She was just going to have to stand up to him, even if it costed her this life and body. Not even fear would be able to hold her down against him. Eventually the time would come and fortune would rain down upon her.

"Fortune…" she thought and mentally laughed as her thoughts drifted to Alice. Ever since the members of Delta had gotten separated on Alternis v2, it was Alice that she wanted to know the fate of the most. Of course, she wanted to know what happened to everyone else as well. It just wasn't at the same level of desire as the gambler, that's all. "May it shine upon me once more."

Elena took a deep breath and nothing happened. These sort of things took time, which she had either infinite amount or quite little of. It all depended on how one looked at the current situation. Technically, time didn't flow, leaving one with as much of it to enjoy in eternal bliss. But at the same time, that meant time was still 'moving' and made getting to a desired point in time an interesting challenge.

"Oh, come on now." Timekeeper whispered as he walked over to Elena. "Do you have to be so stoic? Nobody other than the author actually gives a shit of what you do at all. Come on, I bet you really want to chew my ass a little bit."

Elena continued to stand there in defiance to her opponent. They both had their desired outcomes for this event and neither seemed ready to humor the idea of compromising. Well, if there was any good way to really 'compromise' when chrono powers are involved in a situation.

"Just a little longer." the gale corsair thought and took a deep breath. Her chance would come soon enough, but she had to give it time. This sort of thing were best not rushed. When they were, it usually ended with somebody becoming super old and/or turning into dust. All while believing they had lived a great life. This sort of thing only made Elena madder, reminding her of what happened even more.

She was just an egg then, waiting to be hatched by an idiot of a summoner and a reanimated corpse. Because you know, logic is a rare commodity to be found within Drogaciji Academy. But I'm getting ahead of myself. After having to talk to their principal, the two made their way into a large open room and put 'her' on a table. She didn't actually know what they were going to do next, since that was the exact moment 'he' showed up. Supposedly, he subjected the two idiots to some memory implanting, which failed quite miserably. All that was achieved was a fight between the two over what had happened to her. Well, Elena hoped that what they were fighting over. Not something stupid like who took the last cookie from its jar. It wouldn't surprise me that much. As they did that, the currently naked corsair had made her way down the hallway, searching for clothes along with the possibility of someone to help her out.

"Hello, child." a voice whispered and Elena looked around. Yet nowhere she looked, the corsair was unable to find where the voice had came from. "Down here."

Elena stared down to the ground, finding a black cat wearing a small matching witch hat.

"Uh… who are you?" Elena whispered and got down on her knees as she stared to her new friend.

"I'm Liora, magic teacher here at Drogaciji Academy." the cat whispered and placed a paw on the corsair's face. "You don't look like you're around here. Who are you?"

"Uh... Elena Yuliana." Elena answered as her gaze focused on the ground. "Just some nobody."

Liora shook her head and stared towards the girl.

"That is not true at all, child." the naked corsair gaze returned to Liora's face. "Everyone is somebody. You just need someone or something to be your anchor within this swirling whirlpool known as life."

Elena then stood back up as Liora headed off, leading them to a small office not that from where they had just met. It wasn't anything

"Since you're not a student, we can't technically take you in. But, we can provide you with some basic necessities."

"Uh… thanks." Elena whispered as she was handed some clothes, quickly getting herself dressed and grabbed a messenger bag off a nearby bookcase.

"Take these as well."

The cat handed over a pair of kris, watching as the corsair took a few nervous stabs at the air.

"Thank you." she added and shoved the daggers onto the belt of her sundress. "I should probably get going."

"Are you sure?"

The corsair nodded as Liora watched on, not even attempting to stop Elena as she exited her office and head back down the hall. After all, one can only learn when they can soar freely through the sky with nothing holding them down.

Elena quickly made her way to the destination, constantly making sure she didn't attract the attention of her classmates.

"Hey!"

The corsair turned around, finding Officer EMT standing before her. He seemed quite confused, having already met her outside the building just a couple of hours before. Not that the corsair knew that, mind you. It probably wasn't helped by the overload of heroes the troll was forced to fight a mere hour ago.

"Crud." Elena thought and took a deep breath. While she wasn't quite sure who this guy even was, it was probably best to just leave him alone. She would just have to run faster if she wanted to make it in time.

"Come back here!" EMT shouted as he gave chase down the hall. Thankfully, the hallway emptied out into their destination not that long after their chase began. Here Elena found her parents, still bickering over something pointless. Along with them, stood Timekeeper with pocketwatch in hand.

"There you are." he whispered and cracked a twisted smile. "Would you kindly come over to me?"

Elena mumbled something under her breath as she charged towards him, making sure to knock the pocketwatch to the ground.

"Uh… oopsy." the corsair answered as she scooped the device up and headed towards the side exit. "Goodbye."

With that, she exited the building.

.

"Are you done monologuing and/or showing this pointless flashback?" Timekeeper shouted as we return to the black void, where Elena still stood in silence. "Good. Let's cut to the chase, shall we?"

Elena took a deep breath as Timekeeper walked over and placed a hand on her back.

"All I need you to do is to accept the original choice. I'll forgive you and we will both be able to move on with our lives. After that, you're free to choose what to do with your life."

Elena looked away and quietly debated her actions. As nice as this all sounded on paper, there was obviously a catch within this. She guessed that would be her memories, how few they possibly may be. In the end, was it truly worth giving everything up on such a flimsy promise. Or does one refuse, choosing to gamble on fate one more time? And so we return back to the question. Were things better then than they were now?

Elena took a deep breath and turned her attention to the opponent.

"No." she whispered and switched into her Arresternostmon form. "I'm not in the mood to play this game at all."

"Is that so?" Timekeeper whispered and clapped his hands, making a 2h dao broadsword appear from thin air. The weapon appeared to be made of only metal.

"Just shut up." Timekeeper whispered as a twisted smile formed on Elena's face. "Oh crap."

Memory Spirits!

Instead of the usual handful of slightly-transparent birds shooting out from the corsair, a massive purple bird had appeared. It then soared through the air, proceeding to slam into the wall of this enclosure and create With that out of the way, Elena made her way over to the hole and stood there.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Timekeeper accused as Elena turned around and smiled. "You can't do that!"

"Says who?" Elena remarked and fell backwards towards the rift, her smile growing larger. "I'm just taking my own path and your deal is not part of it."

With that, the gale corsair began free falling towards the void. It was a pleasant sort of experience, the kind of thing you only get to experience once. After that, it doesn't quite have the same punch upon repeated instances. A few minutes then passed of her. In the distance, a large mass of land spun around in all sorts of directions and angles with the familiar castle-like building of Drogaciji Academy jutting out of it.

"Here I am." she thought and took a deep breath, casually landing on the familiar ground of her 'home'. Inside, she could just make out Alice and her party of companions. "Alice!"

"Elena!"

The gale corsair then charged towards Alice, embracing the lucky gambler in a massive hug and knocked both of them to the floor.

"It's been too long." both girls whispered as their lips met in harmony. What followed, was a short session of them making out as their partners watched on.

"Once this is all said and done, we should have some fun." Alice whispered as the two broke away.

"Absolutely." Elena added as a soft growling filled the air. "Crap."

The whole group turned around, finding a normal brown bear standing before him with an unconscious Lily and Adarnamon lying beside it.

"Figures. Of course Wholebear is the only one here when she shows up." the bear whispered and a dogbowl filled with vodka appeared. "Fine. It's about time we got this over with."

Notes:

This chapter is going up a bit earlier than I had originally planned, since I'll be out of town for a week.

I might have hidden a hint to the identity of Timekeeper. While quite obvious and specific, I doubt you'll figure it out. As such, prove me wrong.

Other than that, we got our first ship! AlicexElena for the win!

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Next Time: A couple of plot points are resolved and stuff as we ease into the next arc. In other words, nothing special.