I don't own digimon.

Character: Unknown

World: Unknown

Notes:

Sometimes, the best laid don't turn out in your favor. That's alright though.

Chapter 70

What could've been

Jake Rorst opened his eyes.

Icicles and frost surrounded him, all boxed within four silvery walls.

"Sangran?" he whispered and carefully pulled himself up, his gaze settling upon a piece of paper. "Ugh…"

Inside, every part of him seemed to ready to shut down and/or fall to the frozen floor. But, that did not stop him from wondering why all his actions were being narrated by some random guy.

"Sure, let's go with that." he mumbled, only to realize what he had just said mere moments later. "Who are you and what business do you have with Sangran?"

First off, I'm TK. Secondly, I have no clue who you're even talking about.

"Oh." Jake mumbled and let his gaze circle around his prison. At first, it all looked the same to him. Especially since he was looking at the frost more than the walls itself. But after a minute of just freezing in the same place, our hero cautiously made his way towards the wall. "My mistake. Sorry about that."

His response seemed to catch the narrator off, especially having just started a few minutes ago.

Wait, how do you know me?

Jake stared up towards the ceiling, giving it a confused glance.

"What are you talking about? You helped us take Julie Enoshima yesterday."

But all that did was make our narrator even more confused. But, he took a deep breath and wrote himself a note.

Could you at least show me the paper?

Jake gave a nod, unwrinkling the paper as best he could,

If you are reading this, the time has come.

"Huh." our hero mumbled and looked it over a second. "I'm guessing this is it."

He waited for a response from Seraph, but all he got was silence. So our hero did the natural thing in this situation. Guess where the door was within all the frost. With a cane of course. Not just any cane, mind you. It was a black one, with all sorts of gold ornamentation. Held within a hand that had seen better days, it looked to have seen many a show. That or many a sidewalk. Either one could work in this situation.

Even the outfit he was wearing a tuxedo and matching pants seemed like the sort one wore when they wanted too woo someone for the one big moment in their life. Of course, the diamond ring on their left hand seem to state otherwise.

"What are you even talking about?"

Uh… I'm not sure either.

Jake let out a chuckle, only for the sound of metal hitting metal to fill the air.

"Just a little bit more." he remarked and slammed his cane down one more time, watching a large chunk of ice fall away. "I'm guessing you're wondering who I am then?"

Pretty much.

"I'm just a married performer." Jake explained, pulling the door open with his cane in one solid motion. "Now, I can add 'saved the world' to the list of things I've done."

Wait a minute. You were one of the people that the author summoned forth.

TK got a laugh for his response.

"Summoned, huh? I wouldn't quite say that." the performer continued. "Sure, Claire kinda was. But we made our way in by our own abilities."

Okay…

With that, Jake headed through. On the other side, a long hallway awaited him. From floor to ceiling, everything was some tint of grey. Well, except for the light. That would be a design decision not even I would make.

"Then what would you do then?"

I would probably go with tan felt walls with a grayish blue carpet.

"Huh."

Carefully, Jake stashed his cane away.

"I remembered you being far harsher the first time we met." the performer added. "You always seemed to be criticizing everyone or just making rude remarks. We were surprised that you cared about us that much to show up at our final battle."

I'm not sure what this Seraph guy did, but a couple friends dying really sobers one up. Especially when one of them was my fault.

Offscreen, the narrator stared down to the floor. It was for a brief second, but it was more than enough. He could see their faces once more. Ken, who had a wife and son waiting for him. Davis, who for all his faults still cared. And Makoto, who didn't deserve such a stupid fate to begin with.

"Is something wrong?"

Me, that's what.

Jake's gaze shot up towards the ceiling.

"While I can't quite sympathize with your loss, I wish you the best." he remarked. "That's the least I can do."

Thanks, I guess.

Jake cracked a smile, watching the exit come into view. As quickly as he had entered, the performer made his exit.

Outside, work had begun on repairing the damages from some big event. Which if I have to take a guess, was probably the result of Julie doing something incredibly stupid. But whether that was the case or not, I'm not certain.

"That's one way to look at it."

Then do you care to tell me what happened?

Jake let out a laugh, following it up with a smile.

"Anarchy took hold, pretty much." Jake remarked as his feet touched the cobblestones, casually making his way north.

At the very least, you could tell me where you're going.

"The place where this all began." the performer continued and let out a deep breath. "Just a little hole in the wall, unassuming to all."

Oh.

The next couple minutes consisted of Jake turning various angles to get through the weirdly designed passageways of this town. Like seriously, who the fuck designs a turn to be followed up by more turns.

"Is that really a problem?"

I guess.

"Huh."

His gaze focused in on a far-off building. He took a deep breath and began to dig through his pockets. Eventually, he pulled out what appeared to be a katana.

"Soon it will be goodbye." he muttered and let his footsteps slow, taking on a peaceful jog in place of the full-on run. "I'm sorry that this was not what you expected."

His response seemed to catch the narrator off guard, especially when he approached the building and pulled the door open.

Inside, five figures awaited. Of note, was a woman with red hair. I'm not sure where exactly, but it probably doesn't matter.

Uh… What is going on?

"This is the end." the woman remarked, her gaze focusing in on the floor. Strangely, various fodder digimon laid on the ground.

Is anyone even listening?

But he got no answer. No, they were too focused on whatever the fuck they were doing. As it turned out, that was committing some sort of suicide pact.

No, I can't do this.

.

Evil TK flung the notebook onto the ground, ready to turn and leave.

"Why?" the gentlemanly asshole remarked as he let out a deep breath. Then he walked over to the nearest wastebasket and vomited. "Why!"

Yet, no answer seemed to come. It was almost as if he was being taunted by some unknown entity, setting up something to come. Yet, the gentlemanly asshole took a deep breath and stood up straight. He walked back over to the notebook, his gaze catching a small piece of paper that had fallen out.

Carefully, he grabbed hold and held it up.

If you're reading this,

The end is coming and everything shall begin again. While this may seem like a tragic circumstances, this is for the best. I hope you understand.

-Seraph & Cuddles

Yet, all that seemed to do was make TK even more confused. So he set the notebook down in a safe place, making his way back to his cabin. There, he would get a peaceful rest.

Hopefully.

DigiConjurer's Notes:

I'm sorry.

When I first started work on Azure Shift, this was not the intended fic. No, it was intended to be an adventure story about a group of performers who got into all sorts of wacky hi-jinxes across a new land.

Of course, this was all starting right towards the end of Digital Adventures Online's longest arc. Which was around the same time things in my life that I was finishing what would be my last internship. The next couple months revolved around a series of meetings, followed by a series of short stints 'volunteering'. This was around the time Digital Adventures Online went on hiatus so I could finish that up. Then March came around and I shifted gears. Or tried to at least, writing-wise. I thought that would give me enough to flesh everything out into at least a start.

But the longer I worked on Azure, the less I wanted too. If I had to really give an exact reason why, I felt like I was less writing it because I enjoyed it, but rather because I taken the time to set it all up.

Fast forward to May, I made an executive decision to just rewrite the first chapter into this. Yes, it's a shame that this didn't work out. There is good news though. Since it will be a while before my next big project comes out, I'll be working on AWC and some of my other side works. Who knows, maybe something special will happen. You can never know.