Gregor had the sense of falling. He opened and closed his eyes, quickly realizing it was too dark to see. He turned all around, only feeling the wind rushing through his shaggy hair, and tried clicking, coughing, breathing... His echolocation failed. Still, the place had an uncertain air of familiarity to it, but Gregor couldn't figure out why. Then a scream pierced the air. Gregor flipped around towards the noise as best he could, expecting to see someone, but neither his eyes or ears could discern any objects. Another scream came from his left, but as he turned, there was another to his right. Then another scream, coming from behind him. Screams were quickly filling the surrounding area with the deafening noise. Gregor shoved his hands to his ears, curling up into a plummeting fetal ball, surrounded by terrified voices.

His hands barely insulated the anguished sounds of those around him; in fact, the screams were getting increasingly unbearable by the second. Just when he couldn't take it anymore, Gregor screamed, "Shut up!" at the voices. As if responding to his word, there was a sound; not of screaming like the rest, but of something more sickening and gruesome. Below him, there was a thud. One of the screams vanished along with it. Thud, thud, went another two screams. Soon, all around him, the screams were being cut off and being replaced by a thud. Gregor's anticipation grew. "What is this?" he thought. "What's going on?" He tried to scream, only this time, no noise came out.

Gregor fell for what felt like another hour, his anxiety growing with each passing moment. Just when Gregor thought his fall may never end, he hit something. The feeling of falling abruptly stopped, replaced with sense of rising. As he miraculously rose, his bearings slowly returned to him. Foggy at first, but definitely an improvement from before. He was riding Ares, his bond. He looked at the direction that they were headed, and an audible gasp escaped from him.

There was a group of dreary vagabonds at the mouth of a stone pit, which he and Ares where coasting down towards now. He recognized them immediately as Luxa, Ripred, Temp, Aurora, Boots, and his Dad. They were on the quest from The Prophecy of Gray. Ares landed on the cold stone, and went to stand by Aurora. Gregor began walking towards Luxa, who was crying?

"Luxa?" Gregor asked, putting his hands on her shoulders, trying to get her to look up at him. "Luxa talk to me! Tell me what's wrong!"

She looked up at him, her beautiful violet eyes contorted in a mixture of hurt, fear, and transgression. "Why?" she asked, the tone of her voice breaking Gregor's heart. "Why were you saved?"

Gregor looked at her, face expressing the true internal shock that was a result of what she had just said. "Luxa, what are you talking about?"

Before she had a chance to answer, his Dad spoke up. "Son, how could you leave me here like this?" Gregor's Dad asked, unimagineable pain in his voice as he gestured to himself and to the pit. "How could you let them torture me for two years?"

"Dad, I-"

"Let Tick, die, how could you, let Tick die?" cried Temp.

"Temp-" Gregor began.

They all let lose with questions. Horrible and torturous memories resurfaced in Gregor's mind; the battle against the ants, against the rats, and against the Bane.

"How could you let me die, Gregor?" asked Ares accusingly. "I thought we were bonds!"

Gregor turned to Ares, pleading. "I tried to save you! I tried Ares!"

The other members of the group grew silent, as if to spectate the debate.

"The prophecy asked for the warrior's death, not mine!" Ares argued.

Gregor fell to his knees in that moment. Ares' anger was truly justified. Gregor too had been wondering why he had not died in that cave instead of Ares. His bat was right, it was Gregor's death that the prophecy asked for, not anyone else's.

His friends questioning resumed again, having sensed an opportunity, and Gregor couldn't take it. Their questions pushed him back towards the cliff's edge, and they pursued him, bombarding him with increasingly worse accusations. Gregor took another step back and felt the edge of the cliff beneath the heel of one of his sandals. Their questions were being thrown at him with increasing volume, his friends' voices rising as if to drown out any other sound that might reach Gregor's ears other than their inquisition. Resisting as hard as he could, he tried to fight his way back from the edge. Slowly, he was beginning to move forward, letting their questions glance off of him. "This isn't real," he thought. "Just another dream." Again, as if his friends heard him, they all stopped speaking at once, to allow a voice to ring clearly in the hollow caves, "How could you leave?" His eyes darted to Luxa's, the content of her lavender eyes now solely a brand of broken sadness the Underland seemed to have in surplus. "How could you leave?"

Gregor's will to resist died at the sight. He didn't feel himself falling at first, but he could see him collapsing backwards, and then falling downward through that same hole in the ground, his sight framed by the mouth of the cliff. Gregor could barely make out the form at the edge of the cliff, which was joined by more. "So," Gregor thought. "They want to see it end."

Too his terror, he could see them following him off the edge, following him to his fate at the bottom of the pit. "No!" Gregor yelled. "No! Don't do it!" No matter what he said, he could hear screams again, this time, those of his friends. Yet again the tunnel defied physical convention, as Gregor could hear them getting closer, their fear more palpable.

"Please, please, stop." Gregor pleaded. Dream or not, this was too much.

He got his wish, but only after there were sounds of impact at the bottom of the pit.

Then there was quiet, and he was alone. Gregor exhaled a shaky breath, and like electricity his echolocation skills lit up the bottom of the pit in his mind's eye, rocketing towards him, not even giving him time to scream before he slammed into the bottom.

Gregor bolted upright in his bed, drenched in sweat from the terrifying nightmare he just had. This was not uncommon for him. For the past five years, he had been having nightmares of the sort, but even then, they were rarely this intense, or this real.

Gregor threw off his covers and made his way to the bathroom, which was a convenient five steps from his room. Wearing nothing but his boxers, Gregor looked into the mirror. "Huh" Gregor thought. "I'm a walking, talking record, aren't I?" It was true. He could map out his adventures in the Underland because of all the scars he had accumulated over the year he spent down there. There was no doubting that the Underland had left its mark on him.

"Gregor?" a voice Gregor recognized as Lizzie said threw the door. "Is that you?"

Gregor sighed, and opened the door a crack. "Yeah Liz, it's me. You can go back to bed." he said, softly. She nodded and sunk back to bed. Gregor was too tired to be upset at how worried he made his family sometimes. Even though they tried not to let on, they were scared he would leave them and escape to the Underland. Gregor hadn't told anyone in his family that he'd been having nightmares about the Underland except for Lizzie, and he had only found out because she was in the bathroom and heard him talking in his sleep once. Ever since then, Lizzie would try and check on Gregor anytime she thought he'd had a nightmare. Despite all of this, Gregor would be lying if he said escaping to the Underland had never crossed his mind.

The Underland had not been so eager to escape him either.

When Gregor had gotten back to the Overland, he had been in a stupor. For weeks, all he would think about was the Underland. When he reminisced, however, something nagged at him. It took him a while, but he found out what it was. He was just about to leave the docks of the Underland when Ripred had told him, "That isn't just going to go away; it's part of you." His rager side. Gregor realized how right Ripred had been, though he'd never admit it to the old rat.

Since then, Gregor had been monitoring the Warrior within himself. He found out within a few months that his rager side was getting starved of action, and that no amount of running, or working out could ever fully satisfy it. Although he hadn't intended it, Gregor allowed himself to get involved in altercations at school with bullies who tried to mess with Larry. This helped ease his desire to fight, and since he only acted in self defense, he wouldn't get in trouble with the office. Gregor made a point to never go on the offensive during such altercations; despite his proficiency in violence, he never thought it was the answer. As time went on, Gregor steadily learned more about the rager sensation, specifically the role emotions played in the intensity of the sensation. It didn't take Gregor long to determine that atop the hierarchy of what makes the sensation stronger was anger, which came in second only to love. Needless to say where his experience in love came from.

Gregor hadn't seen Luxa in five years; he missed her most of all. After a year of quests and deaths and revelations, they had confessed their feelings for each other. When he survived his fight with the Bane, Gregor had realized he really did love her.

"Her birthday is next week." Gregor said, somberly. Every year around this time, he considered getting her something for her birthday, as if to say, "I'm here, and I'm thinking about you." Despite having even gone out to buy something for her a couple times, Gregor could never go through with it. What if she had moved on? Gotten on with her life? If he sent her something and sent her spiraling back down to missing Gregor, he couldn't forgive himself. She had every right to move past that year and try to live as normal a life as one can when ruling a city miles beneath the surface of the Earth. Even then, he could still just be overstating her care for him, and could've moved on soon after he left, and Gregor could just be making up fantasies to make himself feel better about being stuck in the past. Gregor pushed the idea of a birthday present to the back burner for now. "Maybe next year." he thought.

With wanton hope for the future, Gregor went back to bed, and fell into a dreamless sleep.

Gregor awoke to the sound of his alarm clock. He fumbled around and shut it off. The thing was so loud and obnoxious. He lifted his head up from his pillow to look at the time, 6:50am. "Time to get ready."

Gregor rolled out of bed, leaving his sheets looking like a bomb had been dropped. He quickly showered and ate and got dressed. He was brushing his teeth, thinking about the homework he didn't do yet when Boots came up beside him to brush hers.

Stopping for a second, Gregor looked at his little sister. She was eight now, her golden curls more bright then ever. She had a shirt on that said, "Princess". Gregor saw it at the store last month and couldn't resist getting it for her. Boots looked up at him with the same brown eyes he had. "Gregor, what's wrong?" He snapped out of his little day dream and replied, "Nothing Boots. You're just getting big!" Boots looked at him sternly. "I am a big girl!" she said. Gregor held up his hands in defeat.

"You sure are, little one."

Five minutes and some accidentally discharged toothpaste later, Gregor and Boots were on their way to school. Lizzie was still sick with a cold, so she wouldn't be going with them. "Bye!" Boots said cheerfully. Both Gregor's Mom and Dad had already gone to work earlier that morning.

"I'll see you guys later, OK?" Lizzie said hoarsely. They waved goodbye as they walked out the door. After all these years, the hallway was still pretty bad. The white paint was starting to intermingle with a dust looking gray, and was peeling off the walls. One time, Gregor and his Dad were moving some furniture out of the apartment and the corner of a coffee table had hit the wall and taken a good chuck of paint off with it. When they finally got to the bottom of the stairs, Gregor kept himself from looking into the laundry room, a skill he'd mastered a long time ago.

It was a brisk morning in the Big Apple, and walking outside was like getting a brief breath of fresh air. Gregor and Boots made their way down the busy street, making their way for the subway station.

"Gregor, I'm cold." Boots complained, hugging his leg. He reached down and patted her head. "Don't worry little girl, we're almost there." It was the middle of September, so it was starting to get kind of cold. However, the subways were always warmer because of the amount of people that used them, so all they had to do was survive the walk until they were waiting for the train. Finally Gregor weaved through the dense crowd and down the stairs, and slightly warmer weather hit his face. He looked around at people's faces as they walked by before moving on. Gregor used his transit card, and got him and Boots onto the train. Gregor grabbed hold of one of the hanging handles in the middle of the aisle, and held onto Boots' hand with the other. When the train started to move, Gregor couldn't help but look around him, and fight to conceal a scoff. Despite how long it had been, Gregor still found it amusing that people had no idea what was beneath their feet.

Thankfully, it was only a one stop ride to the schools, just enough time to stop Gregor before he got caught up in his thoughts. Gregor grabbed Boots' hand and tugged her along to the elementary school, about a block away from the station. He dropped her off in the little playground out front and started moving towards school. Gregor didn't make any new real friends since the Underland. Everyone except Larry and Angelina just avoided him. Some were even scared of him. When he walked by kids being bullied, the bullies would stop and back off, probably because of what happened two years ago.

It was a bright spring day; school had just started up again. The weather was nice enough to wear shorts and a shirt, but because of his scars, Gregor wore a long sleeve shirt and jeans like always. Larry and Angelina were the only ones who knew about his scars, although they didn't know how he got them. The school gang leader, Jason Braq, a tall and particularly overweight guy, with black haired and chubby hands, was out of kids to bully since his last object of focus switched schools. Naturally, he would turn to the weird kid that always wears long sleeved shirts and jeans, never showing any skin. He and his three friends had stopped him from picking up Boots at the end of school one day.

"Hey there, freak." Jason sneered. "It sure is nice out today, don't you think?"

"Nah," Gregor replied. "Still kind of cold to me." Jason's smile faded a bit.

"No one likes a smart-ass, kid." Gregor leaned back, a crowd starting to grow, sensing the oncoming fight. "No one likes a bully either," Gregor retorted. "Or did you not get the memo?" A round of "ooh" rose from the growing crowd of bystanders. Jason looked around, eyes enraged. Gregor was stealing his spotlight. "That's it kid. You asked for it." Jason said, getting into an attack position, his friends following suit.

Gregor concealed a wry smile at their decisions. "Four on one?" Gregor turned serious, his tone cool. "But I think I'll pass." This time it was Jason's turn to smile. "Where is the big talk now?" Jason snickered. The crowd laughed a little. However, this wasn't good enough for Jason. "Where are your friends? Oh wait, no sign of loser Larry?" He and his friends were howling with laughter along with some of the crowd. Jason looked him in the eyes. "Where are your imaginary friends at, Greg? Don't tell me they're all dead?"

Gregor felt something snap inside of him. Within a second, Jason was slammed into the wall behind him, clearly dazed. Everyone followed back to Gregor, whose leg was out from kicking Jason. He set down his leg and looked around. "What?" he asked simply as if nothing had happened. "He talked too much." Still, he just received wide eyed stairs. Finally a familiar voice came in and broke up the crowd. "Come on! Go home! Nothing to see here! Shoo!" Larry made gestures with his hands emphasizing his words. The crowd slowly trickled away, as did Gregor, at least he tried to, but not before a hand grabbed his arm.

"Gregor," a soft, feminine voice said. "Are you alright?" Gregor turned to see Angelina. He could tell just by her eyes that she was worried about him. The last thing he wanted to do was talk about his feelings right now. Gregor smiled the most fake smile in history so he could utter his next words convincingly enough. "Yeah of course! Someone had to put a stop to him." Gregor said, gesturing to Jason, who was still trying to count the number of fingers on his fat hands. Angelina stared at him, followed by Larry. "Are you sure man?" Larry asked. "How do you even know how to do that?"

"I took a self defense class." Gregor replied.

Gregor came back to real time. He was on autopilot, getting things from his locker. Looking around, Gregor saw no one. Just the same old dingy hallway with fading red lockers. He sighed and headed off to his homeroom. He had Mr.. Provis, the AP Economics teacher with Angelina, to Gregor's relief. He was so not a fan of having classes without at least one of his friends. Right before he entered the classroom, Gregor heard someone come his way via echolocation. Moments later, Gregor felt a hand clasping around his shoulder. Pretending to be startled, he jumped away, doing a little spin to face the person.

Larry looked at him, a smile forming on his face. Larry had jet black hair, which was the same length as Gregor's shaggy hair do. They were about the same height, Larry was maybe an inch taller. Larry had asthma, but that didn't stop him from spending most of his time at a gym, leaving him in pretty good shape. Loser Larry was no more. "So this is how I get treated after how many years?" Larry asked, stifling a laugh.

"Sorry man." Gregor started.

"Don't worry about it." Larry interrupted. "I need to talk to you about something quick."

Gregor's brow furrowed. It was rare that Larry talk to him so. His tone was soft, with a hint of shyness. "Yeah sure man, what is it?" Larry shifted his feet, trying to speak his mind.

"Well, you see... I... well " Larry stammered.

"You what?" Gregor pushed, wanting to hear what his friend had to say.

"I think I kind of like Angelina."