Everything as far as the eye could see still looked like a grey goop with faces, She didn't know how long she had been there in this disgusting landscape, After her brief rest Juniko continued to swim her way this seemingly endless ocean of goo, she hadn't seen any sign of life since she got there, the only thing that seemed life like were the faces she had been swimming through, every now and then catching sight of a face that looked familiar, but barely recognizable. "Takajin" she screamed suddenly, tears streaked down her face, despair was taking over, the longer she was there, the more it set in, she could eventually mentally collapse from the isolation of maybe being the last person on earth?.

Digimon Sync episode 17 "There and Back Again"

After spending a few week helping Gennai convince people to accept their digimon back, it was twenty years' worth of brainwashing to deprogram, and today many people were taking their final step of recovery. There was a crowd of people in front of the temple for this event, quite a few of them were still anxious. The doors opened, and there they were, Digimon of various types, and sizes poured out of the temple, some were so frail that they slower than the rest. The crowd looked like they were going to run away till one child around 8 years old walked out of the crowd, and ran toward all the digimon, called out her digimon's name. After a few minutes one finally replied, it was a Gummymon, it bounced its way into the child's arms, and she hugged it.

Juniko watched as everyone in the crowd go forward, each getting their digimon, she wiped the tear from her right eye. She always enjoyed happy endings. She still wished that they could have found Logene, he seemingly escaped without being seen, the bastard got away Scott free, and if she ever saw him again, she would make him regret what he had done to this city.

After everyone was reunited with their respective digimon, Takajin suggested they explored the temple, since maybe it held more info on the Kurokami brigade. They split into three teams, Juniko with Takajin, Hikaru with Mikuni, and Huang with Gennai. After several hours none of them found anything about the Kurokami Brigade, it was hard to tell what had what info because it was all in some strange language even Gennai couldn't read, all he could tell them that the language in the books was Lilithion, and hasn't been spoken in over a hundred years. Now entering the room with the device that had all of Gennai logs, other than the devices there were several artifacts with strange, and dusted up old mirror, none of them helped them figure out anything. Takajin was checking out the artifacts. with Gennai, who joined them after being abandoned by Huang.

"Sigh" Juniko after nearly tripping over a device on the floor, she walked over and decided to dust off the mirror to check the condition of her hair, she never usually cared about those kinds of things. As she finished dusting it the mirror lit up and an Eight etched itself on the mirrors surface, and a beam of light struck, and now the 8 was on her forehead. The world looked like a bunch of shaking mirrors, even the floor she was standing on, she was then pulled into the mirror. Now it looked like she was in some kind of giant machine, the gears all around played strange music, the gear went berserk, and now sounded like laughter, she then woke up with Takajin shaking, his voice sounded panicked, she looked at him "what?" she asked.

"I turned back to see you faint, are you ok?" Takajin replied looking at Juniko with concern.

"I think I fell asleep and had a weird dream" Juniko answered; "I feel fine" she then let out a loud yawn.

"Ok take a nap; the next room has a couch" said Gennai pointing over to his office "in the past I have taken naps there on occasion"

-1-

Juniko entered the office, she sat down on the couch, but before she could lay down, the world began to look like a bunch of shaking mirrors again, this then awoke on the back of the wagon, she looked around in confusion, had she been that tired that she slept through packing up to go, she shrugged like that was it. "Are we there yet" she asked. Huang turned to give her an annoyed expression like she had asked that already, and she got the same look from everyone else so she didn't press the subject, it was getting dark maybe they were just tired, she certainly was.

Setting up camp for the night, Wilhelm went out to collect wood for the fire, when he got back everyone had their tents setup, and dressed in their pajamas. They were all sat around the camp except for Huang, who never join the rest of them for anything; they roasted marshmallows over the open fire, with Juniko setting hers on fire when she wasn't paying attention. It began again the world becoming shaking mirrors.

-2-

She awoke, and it was morning but it wasn't their camp grounds, they were all back in the wagon, the smell of ocean breeze wafted through her hair and smell of salt permeated the air. She looked out and confirmed where she thought she was, it was the north coast. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, and wonder why they were there, she felt like she had actually got any sleep. Stepping out of the wagon and stretching her arms in air, and yawning, then made her way to find the others hoping they could answer her questions, She found Takajin but he was talking this strange girl, who looked part animal, before she could interrupt them, and get a better look at her, the mirrors appeared again.

-3-

Juniko looked around, as she awakened once again, this time beside Hikaru, she seemed to be barfing over the side, then Juniko realized they were on a boat, and it was around noon-ish from the position of the sun, she now wondered what the hell was going on here, was she blacking out for some reason, she walked around now looking for Takajin, who she found talking to who appeared to be the captain of this ship, A crater faced old man with a scar over his right eye. "Are we there yet?" she asked Takajin.

"Stop asking that, we aren't there yet, you have asked five times already, I think Mikuni is even tempted to throw you overboard if you asked her again, and I wouldn't stop" he laughed with mild annoyance in his voice.

What she thought to herself, she hadn't remembered asking at all other than the one time on the wagon maybe he was just exaggerating how many times she had asked, and that was what he was talking about, she took a deep breath taking in that sea air, she had enjoyed this smell every time, she caught herself in this thought, how did know how the ocean smelled like when before now she had never been near one. Was she blacking out, but no one is talking to her about, Takajin didn't even seem worried, and the fact she seemed to be always tired like she hadn't slept at all. She shook off the deep thought she was in now excited to see stuff that she had never seen before, and only heard of in stories, she had always dreamed of seeing the ocean. She spent the day looking around the ship, and then staring out at the vast and endless blue of the ocean, it was almost hypnotic seeing wave after wave hitting the ship, as night fall started, she admired the sun as it dipped into the horizon, then it hit instantly the mirrors all around her.

-4-

She awoke once again; she wasn't on a ship anymore, but where were, she was all by herself now, the ship they had been on was over there, she turned to see a little village, She decided to go looking for Takajin and the others, as she walked into the village, she was suddenly surrounded by people, they were all laughing at her for some reason, she ran to get away from them, she ran headlong into a huge tidal wave of water. Struggling to get to the surface Juniko realized she for some reason could breathe under water, it was just really weird, she shrugged it off knowing that finding Takajin was more important now. As she came around a corner she was now in the sky looking, and the water was gone, she was now looking down at the island they were on, she still could not seeing any of her companions, even her digimon partner was nowhere to be found, she was now freaking out, she just got back with her friends a couple weeks ago, met a friend Mikuni, even though kind of full of herself thinking she is the champion of justice even with a prissy attitude, she still saw potential In becoming fiends with the princess from Suzubuya. She took a deep breath remembering the training her father had given her to relax in situations like this, as she did this, she was then standing on the moon, looking down on earth, but the mirrors came before she could react.

-5-

Now standing in another village altogether, this one everyone bared the same crest as Sorami, and there was Takajin, and the others right beside her now, she took a deep breath, she was glad that she was with everyone again, that everything was ok, Sorami popped out of nowhere seemingly, she was talking to every about something, like she had spoken to them before about it, from the surrounded she realized that they could be in the guardians keep, how they got there was beyond her, she must have blanked out again, maybe no one was noticing this, but how could they not notice that she keeps fainting, something else was going on, and she wished she knew what it was, and she had to figure out how to stop it, Sorami walked up to her and went over some plan to break into something called the Infinite Citadel, whatever that was, she had no clue, she just went along with whatever Sorami said like she knew what she was talking about, and nodded to everything.

-6-

She opened her eyes, and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, but still didn't feel like she had slept at all, but before she could focus, she was suddenly dragged by Takajin shouting in her ear, they were now in a dark cave, and running, everyone was in some sort of panic, Juniko didn't know what was going on, and why they were there, way ahead of them was Sorami, she was helping an unknown man walk, a sharp pain went through her arm as Takajin pulled her forward, in his panic he was hurting, she to see in the corner of her eye they were being chased by men in cloaks, correction Kurokami brigade were chasing them. All of this was way too confusing for words, at this moment nothing made sense at all, where were they, now it came to mind that the question she should be asking is when was she, that she could be jumping through time. At that moment the cave in front of them collapsed.

-7-

She was now surrounded by grey stuff, all of it looked like faces, disgusted by her surrounding she decided to swim for it, every time she paddled through a face it screamed in agony, it hurt her ears, she grabbed lint out of her pocket and put it in her ears, because it made her sad to hear them scream, they were in complete agony it made her want to cry, but she had to find everyone they had to be somewhere they couldn't have just vanished into thin air, she kept swimming thinking about everyone, and wanting to be with them so badly, her eyes felt heavy like they covered in cemen, she had to fight fatigue and continue her search.

Everything as far as the eye could see still looked like a grey goop with faces, She didn't know how long she had been there in this disgusting landscape. After her brief rest Juniko continued to swim her way this seemingly endless ocean of goo, she hadn't seen any sign of life since she got there, the only thing that seemed life like were the faces she had been swimming through, every now and then catching sight of a face that looked familiar, but barely recognizable. "Takajin" she screamed suddenly, tears streaked down her face, despair was taking over, the longer she was there, the more it set in, she could eventually mentally collapse from the isolation of maybe being the last person on earth?.

She continued for what seemed like forever, a seemingly never ending swim in a vast ocean of white, she suddenly noticed a black spot in the horizon, where stars shined, she swam toward it hoping it was a way out of this nightmare, maybe if she went through it she could wake up, and return to reality, she was so tired of this now, every muscle in her body was aching, her legs felt like someone had filled them up with lead, after what seem to be forever, she finally reach the hole, poking her head out all she could see was stars, she tried going through but it was too small, she had to make it bigger for her to fit through. She started punching and kicking, she wanted out of there, it was driving her mad, she continued to punch and kick even though her strength was beginning to fail her till finally the hole started to crack and become bigger, she was finally able to squeeze through, looking around all she could see is stars, she sat down, she needed to regain her strength to continue her search Takajin had to be somewhere.

Fresh tears flowed down her face, her father had taught her to be strong but she could no longer take whatever this was, she was on the verge of losing it completely, memories seeped into her mind and helped her regain composure, out of the corner of her she spotted someone standing in the distance, a sense of euphoria came over her giving her new found strength to stand, and started running toward the figure, as she came closer it wasn't anyone she knew, the figure had their back turned to, the figure was dressed in long flowing black and purple dress, she stopped in her track keeping her distance from figure.

"You have reached the end of the world, and a new beginning" said the figure, her voice sounding cold but pleasant. "I am Lilithmon, the end and the creation, the light and the darkness"

Juniko collapsed to her knees, and stared at Lilithmon like an animal staring at its predator, this was Lilithmon the one that the digidestined of legend had defeated, but now was standing right front of her in all her horrible glory, something though didn't seem right. She didn't speak one word to this demon she beheld like one word and she would own her spirit.

"I surely miss company" Lilithmon said sounding really cheerful, but still very cold in her words, she leaned over to listen to the ground "I think soon it will hatch, and tomorrow will come"

-8-

All of a sudden she was in a tunnel that was seemingly too small for her, all sides of it were pushing her forward, till in the distance she could see light, till at the end, she was grabbed by two enormous hands, and next thing she saw was her mother, and then her father.

"It's a girl" said a person she couldn't see, that was holding her, and he handed her to her mother.

"What should we name her, I have been always fond of Juniko" said Yamato patting the baby on the head.

"Yes that is a pretty name, I like it, you are now Juniko" mother said poking the baby's nose. She felt warm in her mother's loving embrace. She was happy seeing her mother again, little Juniko gurgled happily.

-0-

Juniko awoke standing in front of the mirror, as she was about to dust it off, suddenly someone grabbed her by the arm, it was Gennai "Don't touch that, I still haven't figured out what it does" he said before draping a sheet over the mirror. "It could have killed you?"

All of it was vague, Juniko shook her head trying to recall everything, it all just seemed like a very bad dream, and specific details seemed to be fading like one, but she needed some sleep, she walked over to the office and lays down on the couch, and closed her eyes, she would think more about it in the morning, she finally got the sleep she really needed.

-To Be Continued-

What was all of that, and were they a sign of things to come? To answer these questions, and more, please tune into the next Digimon digital monsters!