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Dark. It was very dark. Pitch black actually. So black that even if he put his hand in front of his face, he couldn't see it. That was pretty dark, even though she considered herself to have excellent eyesight.

Renamon did have excellent eyesight. So why could she not see anything? Maybe that was just the way it was down here. She would just have to find Rika and...where was Rika?

Renamon whirled around. "Rika!" she shouted. Her voice came bouncing back a thousandfold. The sound was modified a hundred times in these caves. The echoes bounced off the walls on all sides and came right back at her. Renamon had to cover her ears on order not to have her eardrums explode. When the sound finally stopped, a small whimper appeared behind her.

She leaped up into the air, the words 'Diamond storm' on the tip of her tongue. Flashes of white appeared in front of her as she was about to fire her projectile at whatever the enemy may be.

"Come on, Renamon! It's me!" shouted a familiar voice. She stopped her attack, but her claws were still up. "And?"

"As in ME! Kenta!" shouted Kenta.

"Oh" she murmured, dropping her claws. "Well what do we do now?"

Kenta shook his head and sighed, even the Renamon could not see it. "We have to find the others. Sitting here won't do any good"

Renamon looked thoughtful. "How?"

"By doing what you just did, only without as much loudness. I guess you have never been in a cavern before, huh?" suggested Kenta.

"Have you?"

"Yeah, me and Kazu got stuck in one once when we were running away from school. It's near the outside of the park, over by Akihabara. I'll show you it if we get back" said Kenta. Then he realized he had said the word 'if'. Kenta shivered. "I want to go home. I didn't sign up on this adventure to watch Takato die and to have all of my friend thrown into a cavern, myself included"

Renamon looked down at him with pity in her eyes. "Neither did I"

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Terriermon stumbled along through the darkness, looking for something, someone, anyone. His first notion that he found someone was that he slammed into a human body. He tumbled over backwards, stumbling on rocks and weeds that grew underground. When he rolled to a stop about five feet away, he stood up with his ears hanging outwards.

"Watch it you little freak!" shouted the voice.

"Oh jeez. Don't tell me I'm lost in the tunnels with Kazu" Terriermon muttered.

"What was that?" asked Kazu in a menacing tone.

"I didn't say anything" Terriermon lied.

"Well now that we are here, how do we get out?" Kazu muttered, concern evident in his voice.

"Do the obvious thing: look for an exit" replied Terriermon.

"If you can't see in the dark, then you can't see an exit" Kazu countered dryly

"I know that" returned Terriermon.

Kazu ignored him, then put his hand up on the wall, leaning on it. He sighed, tasting the cold ash in the air that sort of made it toxic to breath somehow. He nearly coughed. The air was very heavy and dense down here.

"What is it with this place?" Kazu muttered. "The smell and the air is ll screwed up"

Terriermon sniffed the air. This his eyes went wide. "Lay on the ground and be quiet. Don't make a sound" said Terriermon, lowering himself until his torso was touching the ground.

"Why?" said Kazu, getting down on his knees.

"Because Kuwagomon's main scent is hearing" informed Terriermon, now as stiff as a post.

At this, Kazu immediately dove to the ground. The ground was covered with some sort of wet material that stuck to Kazu's skin. I am gonna take a major shower when this is all over, he thought.

Then the buzzing appeared. Kuwagomon, everywhere, up and down and all around, swarmed overhead. Filling the air with that horrible buzzing noise, they shot down the tunnel in search of the shout of Renamon that they had heard earlier. One of the Kuwagomon stopped. As the rest of them dropped out of sight, this one dropped down next to them, looking straight at them.

Kazu broke into a sweat. Terriermon considered shooting a blast at it.

It crouched down over him, sniffing the area. Its jaws nuzzled his hair, feeling it. It reached down a claw and poked him several times. Drool dripped down on Kazu's hair, further adding more dirt and grime onto him and increasing his need for a shower.

Kazu felt like screaming. He had never felt like such a wuss before! Here he was, back against the ground with a Kuwagomon standing over him, and he couldn't do a damn thing about it!

A sweat broke out on Kazu's head.

The Kuwagomon lowered it's pincers until they fit around his head, and then breathed downwards. Kazu felt nauseous as a wave of hot breath slammed into him, pressing him to the ground.

The pincers began to close around his head.

Then, apparently satisfied that he wasn't there, the creature leaped upwards and flew off, buzzing after the rest of the swarm and disappearing into the endless area of tunnels.

"Whew!" Kazu sighed in relief, wiping sweat off of his forehead. "That was close"

"Let's go find the others" suggested Terriermon.

"Yeah, I'm for that" said Kazu, then dashed off way he thought Terriermon was going.

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Susie was sitting on a rock, leaning against the wall with Lopmon clutched at her stomach. She felt like crying, but she thought that Lee would think even less of her then he did now if she did.

No, she had to stay strong. She bit down hard on her tongue to distract herself from crying, then reluctantly let Lopmon go, who toppled to the ground a short distance away. "Susie, would you please stop hugging me like that?" she whined.

Susie looked down at her pitifully. "I wish that none of us had ever came to the digital world. Then I would be back at home pretending to be Terriermon and none of this would have happened"

Lee looked down at her with the same pitiful look in his eyes. "I wish that we could go home to" he muttered.

"Lopmon, you need to digivolve and get us out of here!" cried Susie, standing up with her fists raised, trying to encourage her.

"Susie, I said it before, I'll say it again, the sovereign took away my power to digivolve" explained Lopmon.

Lee looked down at her. "Let's go find the others. Gardromon should be able to see in the dark. We should find him first" suggested Lee.

Susie looked up happily. "Alright! Let's go!" she said, skipping down the tunnel.

"Susie, wait!" shouted Lee and Lopmon simultaneously as they ran after her.

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Jeri clung to her knees, burying her face in her arms. Tears poured down her cheeks. They dripped off her chin and were absorbed into the waxy substance of the floor.

Takato had died. Leomon had died. To of the closest people in her life were gone. And they were not coming back. Now she was lost in a cavern, cold, alone, and deserted. She felt like dropping to the floor and letting herself become part of the glue-like substance.

No one was with her.

She was alone now, on her own with no one to guide her. If Takato was here, he would help her. He would stand that cocky little way he always did. He would say 'Don't worry Jeri, everything is going to be just fine' in that assuring and charming voice that he had. But he was never going to talk to Jeri again.

She was lost.

Had she done something to deserve this? She hadn't counted herself as being a particularly violent person and she had never thought she had done any sins throughout her life. What had she done to deserve all of this horror?

It wasn't fair. She shouldn't have to suffer so much for things she hadn't done. She had not done any murders, lied, or cheated in her entire life! So why was she treated like one of those few wretched people?

A fresh bit of sobbing broke out. Her eyes were looking across the cavern at a dark shape, tears flowing through them. It was some sort of spike, one of those big cavern spires that always appeared on the top of the cavern. She stared at the shape.

Would it really be that bad? Would it hurt?

She felt like getting rid of herself. Everywhere she went, people seemed to die, and a bad trail always left behind her. Takato had died, Leomon had died, Megidramon had nearly destroyed the digital world, and a herd of Kuwagomon attacked, had she left anything out? Oh yes, Beelzebumon was somewhere down in the cavern, tearing the place apart searching for them. It was a hopeless situation.

And it was all her fault.

Then suddenly, Jeri stepped away from the spike. She wasn't going to die. She couldn't change her past, but she could change her future. She would avenge Takato. She would avenge Leomon. She would avenge the deaths of all those killed by Beelzebumon. She was going to make sure he paid dearly for this.

She turned around and ran down the tunnel.

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