A/N:Okay. Let me get something straight. I had just watched Ghoul from Beyond (so ignore the last sentence in the description) and realized that Junjie was the un-ghouled Dark Slinger. So I thought "Floppers, that first bit in Three Girls with Two Slugs was so incoherent with the movie..." But then later I was like "Screw it. Junjie hasn't joined the gang yet, and maybe it was time for Eli to have some nightmares." So there you go, guys. Even though no one had questioned about the timeline of this fanfic, I think I'd better put this note here to prevent anyone from asking me that in the future.

EHH! FIRST CHAPTER LEH! OF COURSE YOU CAN SEE IT LAH!

Chapter 1: Doc Misses Home

Bright rays of sunlight shone through the windows of the Shane Hideout. The slugs outside start chirping good morning to each other. The plants sway slightly in the morning breeze. It's Saturday morning. Saturday.

Sixteen-year-old Eli Shane slowly opened his eyes and stretched, yawning loudly. He got up wearily after a night of nightmares. Ghouls. The Dark Slinger. What he remembered about his father, who was thrown down to the Deep Caverns after Blakk used a ghouled Tormato on him, and his whereabouts are unknown since. They are all coming back to him every night even though he tried to banish them. It's hard being a Shane. Especially after being ghouled and healed.

Pulling himself back to reality, Eli slowly turned over and looked down from his top bunk to see Trixie, the only female member of the group. Trixie has already gotten up and is tying her hair into her signature pigtails in bed. She looked at Eli with her grassy green eyes and smiled. "Hey Eli. Had a good night's rest?"

Eli sighed. "Of course not. I have been having the same nightmares every night." He yawned again. "I wish we never fought that Dark Slinger guy." Trixie nodded slowly. She understood how Eli felt when Burpy was ghouled. She knew how Eli wanted to react when she told him that he had to trade Joules for the upgrades. He had truly bonded with his slugs. Like all Shanes do.

"I think I just wake the slugs." Eli said tiredly. He climbed further up his bed where the slugs sleep in socks, and gently shook Burpy, his Infurnus slug. "Wake up Burp. It's morning." Burpy emerged from his sock-bed looking kind of sad as well. Everyone's having nightmares today. Eli thought. That point was proved correct by Joules, Banger, Spinner and his other slugs, all looking disoriented even though they were the first few to sleep.

But there was something abnormally wrong with Doc, the Light element guardian slug.

"Doc?" Eli said with a hint of worry in his voice. "Doc? You okay?"

The aqua green healer slug that usually had the most energy to heal ghouls and the sick around Slugterra appears sick himself this morning. He had curled up in his sock, his usual green colour had been reduced to the murky grayish-green sick slugs have. Worse, the swirly patterns on his back and the light element symbol are flickering every second.

"Oh no, Doc…" Eli gently scooped up the sick Boon Doc in his hands. "Trixie?"

"Yes, Eli?" Trixie said worriedly as well as she climbed up the ladder leading to Eli's bed. "Is anything wrong?" She caught sight of the sick healer and knew everything. "Poor little guy. What happened to him?" Eli's crystal blue eyes darted from his sick slug to Burpy, who once got sick because of excessive exposure to ghoul energy. He tried to put everything together. He knew that Doc cured quite a number of ghouls when battling the Dark Slinger, but definitely not enough to make him sick like that. Burpy has been exposed to a lot more…but, still. "I don't know," Eli replied. "Burpy was a lot worse that time…"

"Does this mean another trip to the Lightwell?" Trixie asked, gently stroking Doc's head. "I hope not."

Suddenly, (and unexpectedly) Doc shook his head violently, triggering a small coughing fit. Eli cringed at both reactions and immediately handed Doc a slug-sized tissue paper he always keep around. As he tried to block out the muffled coughs of Doc, he thought about why Doc didn't want to go to the Lightwell. Yes, it's kind of destroyed by Blakk, but it's still usable…?

Instead, Eli gave his own answer. "I think he misses home," he stroked the Boon Doc's head. "Don't you?" Surprisingly, Doc nodded slowly.

Eli was caught by surprise. He was just guessing!

Never mind. He thought. If Doc misses home, then let's bring him back to his home cavern. "Trixie?" he asked.

"Yes, Eli?" Trixie answered with her ever-so-gentle voice.

"Check SlugNet for the Boon Doc's home cavern. We need to bring him there." He instructed.

"No need to check, Eli," she answered, shaking a finger triumphantly. "I already know."

Eli fought to let his emotions stay down, and nodded for Trixie to continue.

"It's Bonnie Springs Cavern."

"Why, Eli?! Why would you wake Pronto up when he is in the middle of a wiener paradise!" Pronto complained after the Shane Gang sped off to Bonnie Springs. Kord sighs. "It's not like everyone had awesome dreams like you Pronto." Kord retorted. "You know what I dreamt of? The Beast Forge collapsing again and this time killing off all my cave troll friends!" He winked at Eli. "Whatchya dream about, bro?"

Eli choked back a sob. "Oh, not much. Just the Dark Slinger."

Kord nodded, knowing that if he asked more, he might cause Eli to freak out. "You, Trix?"

"Thought you already know?" Trixie threw back, giving Kord a look.

"Oh yeah, slugs." Kord sighed. Sometimes Trixie can be very impatient.

Suddenly, Eli screeched to a stop and a look of shock passed his face, and Burpy squealed. The rest immediately pulled the brakes, other than Pronto, who crashed into Kord's mecha, Wyatt. Pronto reversed his mecha looking dizzy. Something was wrong.

"Guys," Eli began with a trembling voice. "There's Dark Water here."

"How close are we to Bonnie Springs?" Eli asked anxiously.

"About ten kilometers." Trixie answered, looking at her blaster monitor. "Either this was one of Blakk's newly mined Dark Water pools that is abandoned after his banishment or the Bonnie Springs people purposely put it here to ward off strangers."

"I'm guessing the latter." Eli said. Just then, Doc moaned in his slug tube. "Hang on, little guy. We just had to pass this pool of Dark Water and then we should be safe." He breathed deeply, "Come on guys, let's JUMP!"