Sorry it's been so long since I was on here, been busy with a ton of stuff, and honestly just glad I haven't happened to kill myself on accident yet, lol! Decided it was time to break out the fanfic again, hopefully more commonly from now on. I missed writing!

Anywho, on with the show!

Disclaimer- I don't own anything here, save bragging rights, if the fic is good enough!

(This is going to be a change in ending fic, from just after Arctic Fox joins the group. I just like that time frame for this kind of thing.)

Chapter 1

"Fall back!" Yulian practically screamed over the racket before her. Bodies were strewn across the field, and magic was flying every which direction as balls of light flew back to the re-birthing point at a continuous pace. It was one of the most terrifying things that Odd Squad had seen in a very long time.

The game system had announced there would be multiple boss spawnings in the woods by Infinite City earlier in the week. They'd gathered an army, thinking one or three bosses total. It was two bosses per combatant, which meant there were well over 200 bosses before them. Fortunately the more skillful players were currently taking them down as quickly as possible, but with 20 or so players doing well, 20 or so injured and the rest back in the city, Yulian couldn't justify staying anymore. If they made it out of the woods, the Ents wouldn't follow, but she honestly worried about everyone being able to survive that far.

She looked around and winced as Gui's arm was literally ripped off of his torso by one of the moving trees, and was kicked back, sending him to the ground below Sunshine's carpet, where he'd meant to stay safe. The Ents had climbed atop each other to reach the carpet, which Sunshine was the only one left on, and he was fighting to escape. Yulian pointed, and Doll's flaming skeletons ran over and caught the bottom one on fire, which quickly spread up, causing them to finally fall and release the carpet. Sunshine looked down and around, frowning and swooped down, grabbing Kenshin and Gui before flying as quickly as they could back to the gates behind them.

"I don't see Prince!" Wicked yelled, looking around and Yulian nodded. "Probably one of the first to die. Let's go!" She yelled and Wicked gave a disdainful look around before following.

They entered into the city, beaten and broken, the look of utter defeat on their faces were evidence to anyone else what had happened. Gui was one of the five who survived injured and was currently being worked on by a very unhappy looking Ugly Wolf. "How many hit points do you have?" He asked and Gui tried to answer, but blood started bubbling through his throat and Wolf frowned before taking out a blade and sticking it through the bard's heart.

Kenshin sighed and leaned back, sucking down his third potion, but the wounds were mostly healed now. He looked around uneasily and Sunshine frowned, both sets of eyes set on the field of disappointment before them. Wicked ran over and sat down, taking a break and catching his breath for a moment. "You guys seen Prince?"

"We've been looking for him. We haven't seen him yet."

Wicked nodded and opened his PM window.

"Prince? Where are you?" He waited for a moment, but didn't get a response, and checked, making sure she was still online. "Prince, we've evacuated back to the city. If you're not already here, you should come back. Where are you?" He sat for about another five minutes, not getting any response and frowned. He looked around, walking past the bard who was a little bit ago looking much worse and sighed, looking around. "Have you seen Prince?"

"No, I've PM'd him five times and he hasn't answered yet. I'm worried."

"Help me..." Gui heard in his ear, jumping to his feet at the tone.

"Prince?!"

"It hurts, I can't move." Gui's face paled at the sound of his voice so broken.

"Where are you?!"

"I don't, I can't see..." Coughing followed the team chat and Gui looked over at Yulian and Wolf, both staring back terrified at the message they'd just gotten.

"Are you still in the woods?"

"I can't move! Oh god, it hurts!" Whimpering filled the line and Gui ran over, yanking Sunshine to his feet, pulling out the flying carpet. It was only a second before the rest of Odd Squad was on the carpet, and Wicked, seeing there wasn't enough space for himself, took off running, chasing after the carpet as it flew back into the woods.

He noticed when the carpet finally came down, just out of reach of the Ents, who were currently despawning, and was quickly at it's side. He'd been unable to hear the team chat, but knew what the look on Gui's face had meant.

"Does anyone know which way he'd gone after getting here?"

"Straight through." Yulian frowned, looking at the Ents on the roadway and sighed, raising her hands and after a quick chant, Invisibility was cast on them. "Just don't touch the Ents, and they won't see you. Everyone split up and go search. Wicked, I'll throw you into the group for chat. Ignore anyone else for now, and make sure you all have a potion to give him when you find him." Yulian took off running and Gui took off in a line through the Ents. Wicked frowned, knowing he wouldn't be able to run right through, the sound of the heavy armor would give away his position. He had a feeling. A terrible feeling in his gut that this wouldn't end well at all.

Gui made little work of running through the Ents. It was barely even hard, but he was so panicked he barely noticed his feat and kept going, searching. He was looking around, occasionally clicking on the chat to ask Prince if he'd heard anything, but after about five minutes the tone Prince was using was changing. He sounded less and less like the warrior they knew him to be, and was in tears at one point. Gui kept his ears open, listening around him for the sounds coming through the chat, but heard nothing. He remembered earlier, with the amount of Ents, it wouldn't be surprising to find him this far out.

"I hear someone. Please see me..." Gui heard and listened around him, searching all over the ground around him and frowned, seeing nothing. "Beneath me..." Gui stilled, surprised. Beneath him? What did that mean? He looked up and was surprised to find Prince stuck in the tree, a branch through his stomach, leaning forward against the branch. Gui looked at the tree and after a moment decided it was worth the trouble. He touched the tree, seeing if it turned to attack, but fortunately it wasn't an Ent and he was able to climb into the tree.

"I found him, but I don't know how to get him down." Gui whispered into the chat and Prince turned his face, seeing Gui behind him, reaching down and smiled "I'll find a way, alright?"

"Gui, it hurts." Prince mumbled and Gui's mind went blank as he grabbed the Black Dao from Prince and used it to cut the tree branch off right before him. He sighed as he braced for the next part. "This is going to hurt. Try not to scream too much, getting attacked now would be bad." Prince's eyes widened as Gui reached beneath Prince's arms and slid him forward, pulling him from the branch. Prince winced, biting his lip to keep from screaming and Gui's heart broke at the look. He was pulled off of the branch and Gui steadied himself on the branch, sitting steady with the young blood elf on his lap. He tilted the bottle at his lips, and watched as a full potion ran down his throat. It was enough to heal most of the wound, but it was still open and bleeding all over, causing the bard to whimper. How did a full potion not completely heal him? He uncorked the second bottle and sighed, seeing six more in his inventory.

"Go back to town. I'll bring Prince back." Gui whispered into the chat and Wicked grumbled.

"I don't trust you like this."

"He's almost back to full health, it's fine. Prince can defend himself from me." Gui half grinned as Prince nodded, smiling back.

"I'm fine. I'll be back as soon as I can." Prince looked around and climbed down the tree with a sigh. He looked up at Gui and held up a hand, helping the bard to the ground. They started their trek back by sneaking around the Ents, and were careful enough to escape the other enemies in the woods.

"Gui, thanks." Prince mumbled and looked up, a soft smile on his lip.

Gui wanted to scream and cheer, but in the current situation, and the odd softness that Prince was showing caused him to just nod back, a big grin on his face.

They were about to get to the gates of the city when Gui stopped, a hand on his arm. "Uhm, for today, really, thank you." Prince looked up into Gui's eyes and leaned up on his toes, kissing the bard on the cheek. Gui stared back, shocked and confused as the blood elf ran giggling into the castle.

Prince just kissed him? Something about Prince was definitely off. His eyebrows lowered as he took another step forward, but heard the screech of his alarm clock and ran to the gate before signing off.

xxxoooOOOoooxxx

Prince's POV

He'd been practically dancing, the sword in his hand a tool of beauty as he slew anything in his path. He'd taken out nearly twenty of the bosses on his own, which he stopped for a second to cheer for, which turned out to be a really REALLY bad idea. He stopped, surprised, in pain as he looked down, seeing a cut off branch slice right through him. He tried to yank himself off of the end, but the branch grew and there were suddenly branches on the other side. "Time to suicide." Prince gasped out, the pain unbearable, but he realized quickly he couldn't. He was already so low on hit points his hands wouldn't move, and he was stuck there. He tried to think for a moment before darkness took over. He came back a bit later, most of the blood was dried now, and he opened his chat. Everyone had tried to contact him. He fought to open the group chat, which in his current state took a few minutes.

"Help me..." He was barely able to grunt out. His eyes wandered, but he couldn't see anything. He heard Gui yelling into the chat, but could barely make out what he said. "It hurts, I can't move." He gasped, hearing one line. "Where are you?"

"I don't," He swallowed hard, sucking in blood that was escaping from his lungs. "I can't see." He started coughing, his lungs' way of trying to clear the blood from themselves. His hearing went out, and he knew for the next few minutes he'd heard a few things, but wasn't sure what was heard, or what he'd said for that matter.

He saw a bright light, and smiled. He was finally dying. He could respawn.

He was, of course, surprised as hell when he opened his eyes to see the character creation room.

He looked up, surprised to find the chair before him had a tall man with red hair and facial marks grinning down at him, a wicked smile on his face. "Prince, I've been wanting to meet you. I am the Dictator of Life."

"Why am I here?" Xiao Lan looked around surprised, before her eyes met with the man in the chair.

"To create your Second Life character again. This time, no gender swap. It's kind of a bet. No telling anyone in game, alright?" He held up a finger and wagged it in a 'no-no' sort of fashion, leaving Lan staring, confused and surprised.

"You made a bet, so Prince goes away?"

"No, she's playing Prince now, and we're going to see how well it works out. Xiao Lan, if you tell anyone about the switch, all characters of yours will disappear forever. You'll get a permanent ban. If I think you've told anyone, that's it for you."

"So, what do you want me to do?"

"Pick a character!" His arms raised and all of the characters surrounded Lan as she stared at the man before her.

"Can I ever get Prince back?"

"Who knows?" He grinned, looking around at the characters.

It wasn't too long, only twenty minutes when Lan signed off, the character just finished. She stared at the headband, surprised at the situation before her. She couldn't tell anyone in real life, it would leak into the game, and a permanent ban was more than she wanted. She'd argued with the Dictator of Life and was able to keep her level and abilities, but of course she couldn't keep her armor.

Or her gender. Or her name. Xiao Lan winced at the thought that her old team might not be around her anymore, even though she'd set up Infinite City as the starting point. She finally knew what was at stake.

The daughter of some important guy fell madly in love with Guiliastes, and her father promised the out of game creator lots of money to get his daughter in the position to have him love her back.

The Dictator of Life was interested in this situation, thinking he'd now move to Infinite city himself, to try and get Xiao Lan to love him. When Lan would log back in, her whole second life would be different.

She stood and walked out to make breakfast, knowing her brother would be out soon.

"Yang Ming, Do me a favor?" She asked as they entered the school building, a while later. "Keep an eye for anything unusual in real life, alright?" She asked and her brother nodded, keeping an eye on the girl as she shuffled to her seat. He knew something was bothering her, something terrible, but he couldn't say what it was. He'd asked, and she said "I'm not allowed to say."

Yang Ming watched as Gui walked into the room, his eyes looked dangerous and Yang Ming sighed. "Hey, did you get into a fight with him again?"

"Nope. Don't think I saw Gui at all last night."

"He's the one who brought you back from the woods." Yang Ming stared, surprised she'd forget something like that.

"I made it back from the woods? What are you talking about? I only went through the woods to finally make it to Infinite City."

"Wait, What?!" Yang Ming couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"For anyone who plays Second Life, Please friend me!" Xiao Lan announced to the room. "I've finally made it to Infinite City! My name is Princess Xiao Xiao!" She grinned and Gui looked up at her and smiled.

"Welcome to Infinite City, Princess." He grinned, but everyone in the room could tell he was messed up about something. "Now, we'll start todays lesson. Everyone, bring out the text book."

At the end of the lesson, before she could leave, she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned, seeing Jing, Wen and Yang Ming looking at her confused. "How can you be Princess Xiao Xiao? We all know you're... well... you know." Jing's eyes flitted to Gui watching them from the front seat.

"It wasn't me." She mumbled, crossing her arms and walking. "I was never him. I'm sorry." Xiao Lan took off running, but due to paying more attention behind her than in front, hadn't noticed Gui had stepped towards the door and she ran full force into his back. She hit the floor hard, but instead of jumping and running again, she covered her eyes. "I'm sorry." She mumbled, and Gui stared at her, surprised. "Feng Lan, what's wrong?"

She didn't know how long she sat on the floor, crying her eyes out, her brother and friends hugging her, surprised and confused at the situation they were suddenly in. Gui frowned and took her, telling the other kids to get back to class, and assured Yang Ming he'd take her to the nurse's office to cool off." Yang Ming nodded. Maybe the Wolf would be able to talk some sense into her.

Gui held a hand softly on her back as they walked through the hallways and she sniffed, drying her eyes with a tissue from the box on Gui's desk. "Sorry for causing you such trouble, Teacher." She sniffed again, and he looked down at her with a little worry in his eyes.

"I just wish I understood what was going on. Maybe you can explain it to me some time?"

"I can't, the Dictator of Life swore me to secrecy. I'll be banned if I come out and tell anyone."

"The Dictator of life?!" Gui's eyes widened as he looked down at the girl, who nodded and winced. "Teacher, I need to ask you an in life favor. Please, find a way to get Meatbun, give him to Wu Qing, alright? After this, he'll understand." She sniffed again and Gui stared.

"Why would I do that?"

"He's your son-in-law. You need to. Please protect him."

"I'll do what I can." Gui frowned, looking down at a weepy girl who suddenly seemed so familiar. This reminded him of last night. He frowned as he walked the rest of the way to the office.

"Wolf-dage, Feng Lan seems to be having some troubles, please allow her to cool her head here. I must go back to class." Just before he closed the door his eyes turned to the girl and he smiled softly. "I'll see you in game tonight, I can imagine."

"I'll see you there." She mustered up a smile and turned to the man, currently showing confusion and curiosity. "He sees you in game every night."

Feng Lan's eyes widened as she realized the implications of his words. "I'm Princess Xiao Xiao. I just reached Infinite City. What do you mean?" She asked, hoping this wasn't going to be as bad as she was thinking.

"Give it up. I knew you were Prince the first time I saw you in real life."

"I'll be meeting you in-game tonight, probably. I really am Princess Xiao Xiao."

"But, How? I know it was you."

"You must have decided something wrong. I promise, I'm not-" Before she could finish her sentence, tears started back up and she just let it loose. She cried her eyes out and the Doctor before her frowned.

"What happened? I know it was you, what do you mean you're not Prince?"

"Promise you won't tell anyone?" She looked at the door and the Doctor nodded, surprised at the response. "I do."

"The Dictator of Life took my character. He made me make a new one. I'm really not Prince anymore, and if anyone finds out, I'll be banned permanently."

"I won't tell anyone, I've kept your first secret without you even knowing, don't think I'll break my word now, okay?" He hugged her and frowned.

He had to let Gui know Prince wasn't Prince, but he couldn't let him know at the same time. This was going to be a fun little puzzle, he smiled at the thought.