A Lost Factor

Chapter 6-Echoes of the Past

Jasmine sat in the window the rest of the day, alone, thinking. Lunamon...she didn't want to think about Lunamon. But the tower reminded her of Lunamon; It was Lunamon. So she spend the day covering her face, not wanting to see where she was. She knew she was being childish, but she had never really lost someone, not like this. Lunamon was gone, forever. The others might be saved, but not Lunamon. Not the way she had been before. Gone...

When night came, Jasmine finally got off the window, and climbed down the stairs to the ground floor. She set up her bed near the door, and just looked out, into the grass. She eventually fell asleep.

In the morning, she woke to the grass outside the doorway. For a moment, she was confused, but looking inside, everything came rushing back. Lunamon, gone, her friends, controled. Pirelli, Brian, Hidimon, lost. She was alone, with the only bit of help being one crazy digimon. Who had been locked away in a cave for a year, so she was probably more crazy than before.

Which reminded Jasmine of what she had to do, where to go. To a place with just as bad of memories. Memories of the friends she'd lost, just like Lunamon. No, not like Lunamon. It was possible to remove illusions, somehow. But it had taken either Hidimon or Lunamon to do so, so maybe it was hopeless. But she had to try. If she could at least find Alimon, that would at least be one person saved. Maybe that was the way to do this. Save one person at a time, and stop others from finding themselves in the same place as her friends. On the wrong side, lost to Realemon's evil plans.

Jasmine packed her things, determined not to just sit and cry. Jenni had done that, after Realemon had messed with her, and Lunamon fixed it. But Jenni had been so unhappy, knowing what she'd done, or might have done. Sitting and crying was not the way to save the world. Going and doing things was.

It was finally about noon when Jasmine left the tower, and started walking north. The path filled her with memories, remembering what was happening. Kenny singing, Jenni crying, everyone being themselves. But why had they thought Brandy was herself? If Brandy had betrayed them, she had done it well. There were only two people who thought she was different. Crying Jenni who didn't want to cooperate with her, and Brian, who highly disliked her. But those two had been like that for a while.

She reached the Memory Canyon in a normal amount of time. The place where Realemon had been hiding the whole time. A place where any digidestined had their memories rearranged or missing, as long as they were in the canyon. All of them avoided the place, so it was a perfect place for a digimon to hide, since they were immune to the effects. The battle had been on the ground above the canyon, but anyone Realemon had cought, they'd been sent into the cave, inside the canyon. She slowly approached the canyon. How was she going to get in? Canamon had teleported her both times. There was a very narrow ledge, going along the side, which might lead to the cave, but she wasn't sure.

Walking near the edge, she felt the ground shake. She ran away from the edge, worried. This was Californai, it might be a earthquake, but it was the digital world too, so maybe not...

The ground under her collapsed, and she fell. She tried to grab the edge as she fell, but it did no good. Luckily, it was only a few feet, as she landed on something soft and purple, inside a tunnel under the ground. She climbed off the purple thing, to find that it was a Drimogemon. As soon as she got off, it left.

Jasmine looked up, now out of reach of the hole she fell from. She started to walk down the tunnel, in the opposite direction of the Drimogemon, not wanting to bother it. The part of her mission to help included fixing the worlds, and the digimon might like to hear that and help, but it was too risky right now. What if Realemon found out too soon, and stopped them?

Further down the tunnel, she found a Gotsumon, who actually stopped and asked if she was lost. But as she tried to ask for directions for Realemon's cave, it ran. Sighing, she continued on her own.

A long while later, Jasmine found a stone wall, with some scratchings on it. After a while, she realized it was someone's bad handwriting, made worse with bad spelling. It seemed to say "I curse Michelle and Nani for running, and making me leave this cursed digimon in here. Dumb digivice lock."

Looking at the wall, she guessed that Michelle could mean Michael, since there had been some confusion between the two. She had no clue about anyone named Nani. Closest was N'amie Pas, the illusion girl. But who would be a digimon that was cursed, and why have a digivice lock? What was a digivice lock anyway, not that it mattered, since Jasmine didn't have one. She wasn't digidestined, which was why she remembered this anyway. She got out her D-Terminal, the only thing really connecting her to her friends besides the memories. She wasn't sure how or why she'd gotten it, she just found it one day with her dimension stuff and computer junk, and then a girl started emailing her and her friend Sam. And then they both appeared in Jenni's world, although Pirelli had somehow brought Sam, while Jasmine just was testing something with a new screen. But that screen had never appeared after the first day she used it.

Fustrated, she kicked the door. "Come on, please let me in." She tried to think, who would be cursed and left in here? Realemon? Hidimon? Maybe Alimon. Those were the most likely ones, known to have been here, and annoying enough to be called cursed. Unless, it was something different. No, she had to think it was something related. If this was Realemon's cave, she'd want to be safe, and keep unwanted people out. Even though the memory effects would keep the humans out, digimon would come in, unless kept out. But Realemon had at one point wanted her, along with Ken and Wazumi. Even though she had them now, she didn't need the cave, so, it'd be safe to enter. Unless it was a trap...

"Come ON! Let me in. No Digidestined can come in here, so no digivice can be used for a lock. This is nuts." Jasmine yelled, annoyed and tired. She looked at her D-Terminal for the time- 6 p.m. She didn't notice the word Digivice glow for a moment, but she did see the wall disappear, revealing the cave.

It seemed to be the back entrance to the cave, since she remembered the large, 3 foot square metal box being far back in the cave, but now it sat right in front of her. She looked at the wall, and saw pale yellow robes, just like what her friends had worn, when Realemon had them being slaves in here.

The only thing new in the cave, the only thing not making her remember bad memories, was a glowing ball, as big as the machine, floating in the air. Jasmine walked to the ball, trying to get a better veiw. It was just blue smoke, covering a small green alien digimon. Jasmine pulled the sleeping digimon out of the smoke. It was Alimon. Brandy's digimon. The smoke resembled a type of sheild Alimon might use as Alidramon, her champion. But right now, Alimon just laid there, asleep.

"Alimon?" Jasmine said. Alimon didn't wake up. "Alimon?" Jasmine asked louder. Alimon opened her eyes. "Disturb do not," she said, then went back to sleep. Jasmine decided to let her sleep some more; maybe she didn't want to be in the cave any more than Jasmine did, and Jasmine hadn't been in there for a year. She carried Alimon out into the tunnel, and went back to the hole. By that point, it was night, and Jasmine decided to wait until morning to figure out how to get out, and fell asleep, leaning against the wall, still with Alimon.