A/N: Hello, again, readers! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get this ready, but here it is! If you haven't read the first two books, I suggest you do so.
Disclaimer: I do not own SlugTerra, only my own characters and the story.
Elina, Dementia, Quora, and her family belong to JackieWinters.
Leo and Save belong to Create-Gunner1209.
Leon Blakk belongs to PLAINAWESOME.

Now, let's get on with the story!

Chapter 1: Awake

My life changed, well, it changed again, when SlugTerra University blew up. For those of you who don't remember, our group was returning from Leon Blakk's headquarters after his death at the hands of Dementia, Elina Shae's darker side. No sooner had we set a foot on the familiar campus than the statue of my uncle, Eli Shane, was blown to pieces by an unknown force.

We all froze in shock before every building blew up and erupted in flames, knocking us off of our Mechas. I was knocked away from the rest, and only had enough time to grab onto Speedy, Yang, and my fusion blaster before the rest of my slugs were blown away. I fell against a tree far away from the others and was knocked unconscious within seconds.

I woke up a few days later in an unfamiliar cavern surrounded by dozens of Boon Docs, Fandangos, and Speedy and Yang. They kept screaming my name when they saw I was awake, but I didn't even know they were calling my name, for the fall had caused me to lose my memory. I just looked at them in a confused manner and said, "Who's Jake?"

"Oh no…" Speedy muttered, looking in my eyes desperately.

"Who are you? What are you?" I demanded, looking at them with wide eyes.

Tears started to gather in Speedy's eyes before Yang stepped forward. "My name is Yang, and this is Speedy," he told me. "We are your slugs. You launch slugs like those around you in a blaster to unlock our powers. Your name is Jacob Taylor Shane. You lost your memory. We're going to do our best to make sure you can gain it all back, though."

I nodded, dumbfounded by the fact that slugs could even talk, yet at the same time, it made complete sense. Already, their names sent a few memories through my head: a young boy with dark blond hair and gray eyes chased a Speedstinger slug through a jungle before finally catching it. Two adults walked up to the boy and smiled down on him before explaining that it is best to ask the slug to join you. He did as they said, and the slug jumped onto his shoulder happily.

"I'll name you…Speedy!" the boy stated before hugging the slug.

"Speedy…" I whispered. I realized then that the boy in the memory was actually me. I also saw a memory of a boy chasing shadows created by a Negashade slug while it watched the boy happily. "Yang…"

They smiled at me. "You remember us," they whispered in unison. "This shows that your memories are already starting to return."

I nodded and sat up. "Where are we?" I asked.

"This is SlugTerra," Yang told me as I looked out of the cave we were in and saw a virtual slug paradise. Hundreds of slugs were everywhere. "This cavern is one of two hidden caverns. The other one is inhabited by two humans, like you. This one is only known to slugs and less than a handful of people that were ever allowed passage into this cavern. Of this era, you are the only person alive to have stepped into this sacred cavern. Legends say that the Lightwell is the source of all energy in SlugTerra, and they are true, although the energy flows directly through here. After you were knocked out, your energy drew numerous slugs out to bring you here to heal. Now that you have awoken, we must go about this very carefully as to not push you too much. We need to help you get your memory back as much as possible, and at that time, we will train you to become the most powerful Gifted in history, stronger even than the originals," he finished.

"Whoa, slow down," I told him, holding my head as I took in the information. "A little bit at a time."

He repeated what he said previously at a slower pace so that I could comprehend it all. He also explained what a 'Gifted' is.

"A Gifted is one of five humans that are born once every hundred years with extraordinary abilities in either strength, speed, intelligence, or technology. There are two born with strength abilities. You are one of them, and their leader," he explained to me. "You are also the Guardian of the Gift, the source of your power."

I nodded as I remembered what the Gift is. I could envision the strange light given off by the stone, reflecting off the walls of the cave it was located in.

"He is awake," I heard a slug chirp behind me. I turned around and saw a certain Boon Doc with light markings around his body. "You must not remember me," he commented. "I was Eli's slug, Doc."

I smiled as I remembered the name, picking him up. "How've you been?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "A bit sore from the explosion a few days ago, but fine," he replied.

Yang jumped in front of him. "How long do you think it'll take Jake to recover his memories?" he asked me.

"All of them? Hmm…a long time, at least five years," he said apologetically. "Unless…"

"Unless what?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "No, he'll need to be stronger to get past her son," he muttered to Yang, who nodded knowingly.

"UNLESS WHAT?" I demanded.

Doc sighed and turned to me. "Do you know who Elina Shae is?" he asked me.

I nodded slightly as the name brought up a face and basic information about her. "Yeah, why?" I asked him.

"There are more caverns beyond the 99 Caverns, known as the Eastern Caverns," he told me. "There is an Eastern Cavern equivalent of Elina, only her specialty is water. Her name is Quora Tsuyoi. She may be able to help you recover the rest of your memories, but to get her help, you must get past her son, Qai. He helps his father, Junjie, guard the cavern when unknown people enter."

I nodded as the name 'Junjie' also sparked a faint memory from years ago. Eli had told me the story of the Ghoul from Beyond, and how Junjie, the protector of the Eastern Caverns, helped him save SlugTerra multiple times, although after five years, he and Quora moved to a far-away cavern. The stories always awed me as a child, but as I grew up more, the stories were replaced by stories of Eli's more recent adventures.

"Why can't I go find them now?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "You would never be able to get past Qai. Besides, you are still weak from your injuries. You broke several ribs during the explosion. Besides, your amnesia caused you to lose your powers," he explained. "We need to help you recover them as well."

I sighed and nodded. "Fine."

Same time, Emma's POV…

"Any news about Jake's location?" I asked Luke as we continued the search for survivors of the blast. While we were gone, it turned out that Dark Bane had swept through and scared away everyone there, so we found them easily, but the slugs had stayed behind, so we were looking for them, and Jake, of course.

Luke shook his head slowly. "I can't find a single trace of him. It's like he disappeared," he told me solemnly.

I shook my head and grabbed a Rammstone that was trapped behind some rocks while Luke lifted the rocks out of the way. "We need to look again."

"Look where?" he asked me. "We've looked everywhere."

I sighed. "I know, but we can't give up. Somebody could've taken him away to a different cavern," I told him, although we both knew it wasn't a very good chance of it happening.

When the University blew up, we were all knocked back. Luke along was able to stay on his feet through the sheer luck of standing behind a surviving portion of Red Hook Hall that stayed unaffected. Everyone else, though, was injured in some way or another. Mark had a severe concussion, Vinyl had several broken ribs, Ms. Shane had a broken leg, and I had my arm in a sling. Boon Docs could only do so much, especially since Doc disappeared with Jake.

Jake.

I noticed that he was missing the moment we gathered together. We did a quick sweep of the surrounding area, and that was when his mother and I got really worried. Since then, Luke's been examining the entire cavern for any trace of him that he could track, but we haven't found anything except for his normal blaster, cracked by a boulder. His slugs all disappeared as well except for the ones that used to belong to Eli and Trixie, which returned to Leo, who also managed to evade the blast thanks to Save, his Pulter Slug. Save managed to press a button on his Mecha that caused it to brace itself and hold onto Leo, preventing him from suffering injuries.

We had been searching ever since we all regained consciousness, saving any slugs we came across. We never got a sign of Jake, though, other than Splat, his Jellyish, who managed to slip down a slug passage. He got Dune, his Sand Angler to follow it as far as possible, but it didn't even go as far as the edge of the cavern before the trail disappeared.

He just nodded and continued to walk around, looking for the slightest sign of his wherabouts.

We continued to search for him for three months, but no matter where we went, we couldn't find a word about where he went. Our efforts lessened, and we instead filled our time with helping out Kord, Pronto, and Ms. Shane in keeping the 99 Caverns safe. Six months after he disappeared, his weapons vanished from their hiding spots on his Mecha, which we recovered after the explosion. We never figured out where his swords and knives were at the time, but kept our eyes out for them as well. After almost a year, our efforts had dwindled to almost nothing, at least until we caught a hint of a trail one day...

almost a year later, Jake's POV...

During my time in the second hidden cavern, the slugs there pushed me to my limits and beyond, expanding my strength, endurance, and speed well past my previous limits. About six months after I woke up Yang and a few other Negashades managed to find my weapons, so I began training with them soon after. They would give me tests such as having to take down a variety of slugs in Mega-, Super-, and UltraMorph forms, although very few slugs could access UltraMorph: Guardian Slugs and near-Guardian slugs. Speaking of which, Speedy and Yang became Guardian Slugs after the third month of training, in which they also participated.

My memories started to return gradually over the months as well, but there were some things that I couldn't remember no matter how hard I tried. I could remember my family and what happened to Eli and Trixie, but I couldn't remember the moment when Mom told me that she's, well, my mother. I can remember every single detail about Emma, including our relationship, but I couldn't remember anything about Luke and Mark except for their names. Doc was very impressed by my progress in regaining my memories, but explained that they will not return fully unless I can get Quora to heal my mind.

After nearly a year of constant training in preparation of facing Quora's son, Qai, who has a life of training and experience in his favor.

"You've come very far, Jacob," Doc told me after 11 months of training. "You will leave to meet Quora tomorrow morning, and will arrive in her cavern in roughly two weeks, because she is in one of the easternmost caverns, which is very far away. We've gathered all the supplies you'll need for the trip, and extra rope in case you need it," he added, nodding toward a large backpacking bag. "Members of your original group of slugs will also meet up with you along the way, adding to your numbers. I will stay here, but Speedy, Yang, and your Riviera slug, River, will accompany you on your journey, as well as your Fandango slug, Dynamo, who will keep your energy requirement filled."

I nodded as Speedy, Yang, and Dynamo hopped onto my shoulders. "Thank you for doing all this for me," I told him. "You won't regret it."

He smiled and nodded. "I know," he replied simply.

I spent the rest of the day mapping out my journey, planning it so that I would avoid people at all costs. The planned route would take me practically right past the Hideout unless I wanted to travel a day out of my way. If nobody was home at the time in which I passed by, I'd probably stop in, restock, and grab Stryder, my Mecha, to shorten the journey considerably.

"Do you have it all mapped out?" Speedy asked from my shoulder.

I nodded. "I just hope that the rest of the team has been okay so far," I replied.

"I'm sure they'll be fine," Speedy assured me. "They were your slugs, remember? They'd have to be tough to deal with you for two years."

I rolled me eyes and chuckled as I went through the supplies Doc gathered for me. It had a small tent, plenty of rations, some rope in case I would need it, a warm blanket, a small tarp, a heat source for cold nights, and a very large water bottle. It would be more than enough, and the heat source would only need to last me until I could find a Fire-element slug of mine.

"Will we have enough for the journey?" Yang asked me as I compared it to how much we'd need for the journey.

I nodded. "We'll have more than enough, fortunately," I told him as I sorted it all and organized it and placed it back in the large bag Doc found for it all. "So, are you guys ready to go?" I asked the four of them.

"Absolutely!" Dynamo chirped. "I can't wait to get out of here and actually do something!"

"Oh, it isn't that bad," River told him.

"Yeah!" Speedy agreed.

"Suck-up," Dynamo muttered to him.

Speedy blushed but stayed where he was as they bickered over whether the time in the cavern was fun or boring. During that time I just relaxed and greased my fusion blaster, making sure that it worked perfectly with the upgrades I added to it. I made sure it could handle the stress of a SuperMorphed fusion shot, and I even equipped it with strong enough accelerators so that it could shoot into SuperMorph without having to charge it with my own energy. I had to greatly strengthen the main shaft and, well, everything, or else it would've been destroyed by the sheer force in the accelerators.

That night, I pulled out a pair of glasses out of my pocket and put them on, activating the holographic screen so that I could look through the numerous pictures. The Holo-Glasses managed to survive the explosion, and after a bit of tinkering, I restored the hard drive. There were numerous photos of Emma and I having fun, as well as the numbers for Emma, all of my friends, Mom, and numerous other people.

"Are you ready to leave?" Doc asked as he appeared beside me.

I nodded, taking off the Glasses. "Yeah, thanks," I replied, placing the Glasses on top of my bag.

He nodded in approval. "Remember, you must not be seen by everyone," he told me. "We taught you how to use stealth in your movements, but some can still find you. You must also be sure to avoid your friends, as they will surround you and make it impossible to reach your destination at all. Luke must especially be avoided at all costs, as he has the ability to track anything."

"I know," I assured him as I leaned against the wall of the cave I was in. "Don't worry about it, it'll be fine," I added.

He had a skeptical look in his eye but just nodded and walked away, leaving me alone for the night.

The next morning, I woke up bright and early, ready to get going on the trip. I made sure once more that I was ready to go before Speedy, Yang, River, and Dynamo jumped into their slug tubes. I attached my swords and knives to my back for easy access, then launched a Thugglett slug at me to change my appearance so that I wouldn't be as easily recognized. To one of my friends, a single word from my mouth would give me away, so I'd just have to avoid them.

Anyway, I left the hidden cavern twenty minutes later, saying 'goodbye' to the slugs as I went before I took a hidden passage to the entrance, which is hidden behind a large boulder. Normally, there is a small entrance at the bottom for slugs, but I just slid the rock out of the way to get out, then pushed it back once I was out.