*EDIT* Hi, I am going through each chapter, cleaning them up, and republishing them. I am upset with the level of work they are at now. My absence will be remarked upon at a later time, preferably with the update of a new chapter.

Hello, please read the author's note at the bottom.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Underland Chronicles. Suzanne Collins does.

Chapter One: The Torturing Nightmares

"Come on, Gregor. We almost have him," Ripred growled.

Gregor blew an annoyed huff of breath. He knew that the gnawer was right; the two were close to cornering the object of their pursuit. He was just as observant as Ripred.

Gregor put Ripred's insults far from his mind and concentrated on dodging the messy remnants that he was racing through. However, it did not escape Ripred's notice that Gregor was far inferior to the rat at sprinting through the obstacles.

Ripred yelled to the ever-falling behind Gregor, "That idiot bat of yours would have been a lot of help to you."

"Why did you tell Ares not to come? I could have searched in the air and left you on the ground to run around all this debris from the starshade field!" Gregor yelled back, angry that Ripred insulted him. He kept tripping over trampled ant carcasses that were splattered with harmless purple goop.

"How was I supposed to know how incompetent you are?! I mean, you can't even keep pace with a crawler." The gnawer's enunciated words were true. As a massive wave of thousands of crawlers swarmed from behind him and the gnawer, they overcame Gregor with ease. An out of place in the swarm of brown and black creatures, a blob of pale pink bobbed in the corner of Gregor's peripheral vision. When he turned to look, he stopped quickly, stumbling to a halt. Out of nowhere, his younger sister Boots appeared, riding on the back of a familiar cockroach with a bent antenna.

"Boots what are you doing here on Temp?!" Gregor questioned through the never ceasing flood of crawlers."I thought I left you with Duclet! You need to get out of here! It is dangerous!"

Boots, who was suddenly her two-year-old self, screamed gleefully,"Ge-go, play ball wif Temp and me!"

From somewhere unseen, the giant hisser Frill reared out of nowhere on her hind legs displaying the multicolored ruff framing the giant head. Frill opened her monstrous mouth and a rubber ball shot out covered with hisser spit and hit Gregor squarely on his chest.

Gregor jarred as the setting changed. He was no longer chasing after Ripred in the ruined field of starshade, but now found himself freefalling over the edge of one of the boats that had been taken on the journey to kill the Bane. With a thump, Gregor landed on the back of a large black and white striped bat, Nike.

"Do not fret, Oh Mighty Warrior, the Princess of the Fliers has willingly saved you from your ultimate destruction." She announced pride swelled her voice making it loud enough to be heard across all of Regalia, in a manner that seemed out of character for the normally humble flyer. She swept him up to a cave in side of a long, dark, rocky tunnel. It was dank and smelt of rotten eggs.

"Egghh," Gregor moaned as the sulfurous liquid dripped down the walls. He needed to get away from here. The fluid was horrible and could bring disease if one was exposed to it for too long. Gregor had to get back home: back to Regalia. With his thoughts, Gregor found the ground melting away from his body, leaving him erect within the air for a few seconds before the sensation of falling formed in his stomach.

Plummeting, he twisted and turned in the air so he would land face down on Ares. Gregor could reach a glimpse of the sharply jagged cliffs and rocks racing towards him form the bottom of the gorge. He wished that Ares would hurry to catch him. He waited and worried as the distance from the sharp rocks waiting to impale him halved.

"Ares!" Gregor called. "Ares, where are you? Don't let me die!" With the last word, it hit him.

Die. Dying. Dead. That is why Ares had not saved him. ARES WAS DEAD. And Gregor was soon to join him.

"NOOOOOOO!" Screamed Gregor as his chest split in a million pieces, coming in contact with the rocks.

It was just a dream. It had been another Torturing Nightmare.

Hello, I am AssassinAuthor.

I want to say I will always have the author's notes at the bottom. This is a short chapter, I know, But I will try to update once a week. I will not beg for reviews, but they are nice and I will consider everything said in them. Plus, I will update faster :)

Thanks for reading,

~AssassinAuthor