PART I

THE PLIGHT

Enough. Enough! Gregor was sick and tired of Virginia. This was even worse than it had been two and a half years ago, when he'd sneaked out in the middle of the night with Lizzie to go back to the Underland. Being back then was like waking up from a coma, being alive after being on stand-by for a few years. But now? It was as though someone had knocked him back into stand-by after only a taste of what life was like. Very unfair.

After his early-morning getaway last year, Gregor's parents took his car away for a month. He didn't care, though. What good was a car if you had no friends to drive to the movies in it? What good was a car when the only girl you'd want to impress traveled by giant bat? It didn't matter.

That was over, he'd gotten his green rust bucket back. His parents told him to "be normal". What was normal, anyway? Certainly not them. Certainly not Gregor.

With a sigh, he got up for school. It had been interesting, going to school again after all that had happened to him. He couldn't go one day without completely spacing out because a memory had been triggered. For example, yesterday someone mentioned the popcorn shrimp the school was serving for lunch, and he had all together stopped moving and closed his eyes, thinking of the sardonic rat, Ripred, and his favorite dish. Shrimp in cream sauce, popcorn shrimp. Those were two completely different foods, yet the mention of the word "shrimp" made two of his three "friends" look at him like he was completely bizarre. Which he was.

The only "friend" who didn't think he was crazy was Jarod, a talkative, conceded kid who got on almost everyone's nerves. Including Gregor's. But since Gregor had confided his secret in him, Jarod lightened up a bit. He bragged less, and was significantly less rude, though still was not Gregor's favorite person in the world. In the Overland, maybe he made the top ten. But most definitely not even in the top fifty in the world, if other species and dead people counted.

Dragging himself out of bed, he stopped to examine his body before putting a shirt on. He traced the collection of scars on his arms and torso with his fingers. Each one held a different story for the most part. A few spoke out in groups.

The squid sucker marks had faded significantly, though not enough to wear short sleeves. The pair of twisted lines from the vines in the jungle were all but invisible now. Various thinner scars marked where gnawers and cutters he'd fought found their way through his defenses. Gregor would almost be able to wear a wider variety of clothes, instead of his eternal long sleeve-long pants garb.

But there were still the five Bane claw marks, which hadn't gone down at all since the day he'd gotten them. That would be kind of hard to speak for. Plus, there was also the newest addition to the family, the small slice on his side where the other rager had cut him two years ago. It was different from his other scars, ink black in color, and whenever he prodded it, he'd feel a wave of sadness, depression, even anger sometimes wash over him. Finally pulling a shirt on, he went to get some breakfast in the kitchen. He was finishing up his senior year of high school, and would be graduating in two months. He'd be able to return to the Underland for good in two months! Somehow, it seemed too long of a wait.

Gregor was the only one awake this early in the morning, since he drove himself to school nobody needed to give him a ride. After quietly putting some bread in the toaster, he went back in to his room to feed his pet rat, which he'd go as a Christmas present from Lizzie two years ago. He'd named the gray rat Ripred, even though he was significantly less scarred than his namesake. The little rat actually seemed like Ripred. He would snort and make scowling faces whenever Gregor spoke aloud about the prophecies, and squeaked excitedly the one time he'd been given a piece of shrimp. Gregor sometimes wondered if this rat was a rager, too.

Heading back to the kitchen, he grabbed his toast to eat on the ride to school. It was twenty minutes away, and there were plenty of red lights once he got in to the city. He got in to his car, and started up the green bucket of bolts, driving off of their farm. But after two minutes of heading east to school, Gregor made a U-turn. He was going home to leave a note, and then drive to New York City.

At home, he grabbed a pencil and the nearest piece of scrap paper. It happened to be a report he'd done on bats a few weeks ago. He had gotten an "A" on it; it would have been hard for him to fail, even though it was painful to think about the fliers back in the Underland. He began to write.

Mom and Dad,

Please don't freak out. You'll know where I am if you just think for a second.

He didn't mention the Underland, just in case it somehow fell into the wrong hands. Gregor was a bit paranoid about that.

I'll be home in a few weeks, maybe in a month. Don't come after me this time.

Love,

Gregor

p.s. Lizzie: I'll feed Ripred if you feed Ripred.

He erased the last bit, deciding to bring his pet with him. In it's place he wrote,

p.s. Lizzie: I'll tell Ripred you said "hi".

He read it over once, and finding it sufficient, he set it down and grabbed his rat, who was sleeping. Little Ripred squealed in surprise, but almost immediately went back to his nap. Changing his mind again, he set the rat, who was angry with the multiple interruptions to his nap, back in the cage. Gregor then quickly dashed out the door, partly in excitement, partly because he was afraid he'd be caught by his parents of one of them were to wake up.

He thought he heard their front door slam as he peeled away from their farm. In his rear-view mirror he saw that it was nobody, though. False alarm.

Gregor ran through his schedule and munched down on his toast while he waited at a red light, just to see what he'd miss this week. His second ever fencing competition was this weekend. That was about it. He'd taken fencing up on Ripred's suggestion. It was the perfect sport for him, requiring a long-sleeve long-pant suit for the uniform. Plus, as a rager, he dominated everyone in under three seconds. It also allowed him a safe way to practice controlling his rager side. He'd won three hundred dollars at his first tournament, too, which was good.

The light turned green, signaling Gregor to go. He soon was on the highway, heading a mile a minute toward the Underland. It would still be a long way. He flipped on some music. It was the middle of the song Your Guardian Angel by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. It reminded him a lot of his bond. Instead of painful memories, though, he was happy at the thought of Ares. The Sword of Shadow's nightmare helped him with that. It conjured images of their bonding ceremony, even though it was not like the normal kind.

"...I will never let you fall,

I'll stand up with you forever.

I'll be there for you through it all,

Even if saving you sends me to heaven..."

Saving Gregor had killed Ares...and the bat was there for him through it all, never letting Gregor fall. The words fit perfectly. Small tremors wracked Gregor, who had driven over the wake-up strips on the side of the road, bringing his attention back to driving.

A huge green sign reading "New York City 14 miles" hung above the highway. He'd be in the Underland in under an hour! With a deep breath, Gregor laughed. He couldn't help smiling when he knew he was this close to everybody...
Disclaimer: The Underland Chronicles? Not mine. And the characters from them? Same. Talk to Suzanne about those. But the ones I made up? Yeah. They're mine. Not yours. Or anyone else's.

Other Disclaimer: The lyrics to the song Your Guardian Angel and all that stuff relating to it belong to Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.

Note: Thanks to all who read and reviewed my first story, Gregor and the Sword of Shadow. This is the sequel to it.