Chapter three~ What? No kiss?

Gregor awoke to a pair of brown eyes staring down at him.

"You slept for a long time." Maggie said, grinning as Gregor tried to sit up.

"Let him breathe, Maggie." Lizzie said from a chair in the corner of the room. She sounded tired and Gregor felt like hitting himself in the head a million times with a shovel. How could he make Lizzie go on like this, wondering if he'll never wake up? Even since they left the Underland, Lizzie's worry lines grew deeper and every little thing set her off. He really should have handled himself better...but for what? How could he have prepared himself for seeing a bat who looked insanely like his deceased bond?

Gregor's head was spinning from struggling to get up, but through his whirlwind of thoughts, he heard a voice softly call out his name. A voice that made him forget all about that big black bat. A voice that he had longed to hear again ever since they were separated.

Luxa stood in the doorway of his hospital room, leaning on the frame for support, as if she was dealing with too many things to support herself. She was accompanied by Angelina and Larry, but Gregor had eyes only for her. He dizzily took one step to her and she did the same. He could see the lilac circles under her eyes and he knew he wasn't the only one who had nightmares when they were apart. They just stared at each other until Gregor broke the silence and said,

"What? No kiss? Not even a smile?"

Luxa glared at him before pulling him into a tight hug. She pulled away a bit too soon, in Gregor's opinion.

"Oh, get a room you two. Or at least get your sorry butts to the arena for training." Ripred snarled, whacking Larry in the head with his tail as he entered the room. "This is no time for romantic gestures. Meet me at the place after training, boy. We need to get your rager senses back under control." Ripred said, addressing Gregor.

He nodded in response, and Ripred left the room, lightly smacking Angelina in the back with his tail as he did so.

Angelina frowned and then took a step towards Gregor. She said,

"Okay, what the heck is going on? I know you explained everything to us in Central Park, but we still need further explanation. Why did you pass out during the meal when that black bat came flying in? And what do you mean, training? I thought you killed the warrior!" She yelled, the volume of her voice rising.

Luxa said," Overlanders, all of you should accompany us in training. It is probably best, considering the current situation we are in." Maggie looked excited at the prospect of training, but Lizzie furrowed her brows.

"What current situation are we in, exactly?"

"We are preparing for war against the cutters." Luxa said calmly. But she glanced at Gregor, who was keeping his face expressionless. Angelina and Larry both exchanged worried glances at these words.

"We're not soldiers, Your Highness. We can't possibly participate in this war that you-"

"It is essential you learn how to defend yourself, at the very least. Come along, Overlanders." Luxa cut him off.

••••••••••••••••••••••••

She led them to the High Hall and Luxa signaled a few bats to take them to the Arena. Gregor ended up riding on a dark brown bat that seemed barely full grown.

"Greetings, Overlander. I am he called Iapetus. It is an honor to finally meet you, Warrior."

"The pleasure is all mine, Iapetus." Gregor responded. That was all the discussion they had the whole flight.

When the bats reached the arena, Larry and Angelina were in awe. Gregor knew they hadn't seen anything like it before in the Overland. Gregor surveyed the scene as well, holding onto Maggie's hand before she ran off somewhere. Even though she was eight years old, she hadn't lost her two year old energy. There were groups of trainees doing things ranging from blood balls to tumbling to fighting on fliers. He noticed Mareth waving them over, so they jogged over to him.

"Hello, Gregor. Maggie shall train with Arran over there," Mareth said, pointing to a young man who had a friendly look on his face and was surrounded by eight year olds. Maggie happily ran over to him.

"Lizzie shall train with Freya," Mareth continued, waving to a middle aged woman who was showing a boy Lizzie's age how to properly hold a sword. Lizzie walked over to Freya shyly, and stood next to a girl who seemed entranced by Lizzie's brown hair.

"And you four shall train with me, if that is alright with you." Mareth said jokingly. Gregor, Luxa, Larry, and Angelina followed Mareth to a group of teens their age. They all stared at Gregor and he heard them whispering words like "warrior" and "overlander" and also "Ares". Mareth went through a cart of swords and handed one to each of them (except for Luxa, who had brought her own).

"These will have to do for now, but if you wish, you can visit the armory and choose another one to your preference." Mareth informed the Overlanders. He received nods in return. Mareth walked to the front of the group (he had gotten quite good at moving around on his prosthetic leg) and addressed the group.

"We shall be starting with 2 laps around the arena and then proceed to regular training, beginning with flexibility."

Gregor groaned. He hated tumbling. Luxa heard him and smirked at Gregor. He glared back at her, and then proceeded to sprint ahead of her as they started their jog. Luxa ran past him a few moments later and it soon became a competition between the two of them until Mareth ordered them to knock it off, all the while trying not to smile. By then, they were laughing hysterically and grinning like they were twelve years old again. But Gregor's grin soon faded as soon as they got into gymnastics. Over the few years Gregor had been away, Luxa had improved even more while Gregor, on the other hand, had only gotten worse.

"Tuck your legs in when you roll, Gregor." Luxa said between laughs.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Your turn." He said, brushing himself off and wincing in pain from when his back slammed against the floor. Of course, she preformed the somersaults perfectly, and even added some twisty thing at the end which wasn't even necessary.

Next, the group moved on to dummy practice, which Gregor excelled at. He was also pleased when Larry did pretty well for his first time. They then moved onto blood balls, which filled Gregor with dread. The last time he had trained with blood balls, Ares had been there for him. Now, he only had a watchful crowd of Underlanders expecting him to do something amazing. He got in the back of the line, behind Luxa. He clapped for everyone and cheered when both Larry and Angelina hit four blood balls each. Luxa hit nine, which was the highest score anyone had gotten yet that day. Then it was Gregor's turn.

As he stepped up to the cannons and got into a ready position, he heard people begin to crowd around and him and whisper excitedly. Mareth signaled the cannons, and Gregor felt the rager sensation take over. One, two, three blood balls burst open directly in front of him. Four, five, then six came at his left and hit the ground open. Seven, eight, nine, ten came at him from the right and hit the ground covered in red. The last five came all at once from every side and he slashed his sword in an arc to protect himself. They all fell to the ground in a pool of blood around him in a matter of seconds. The crowd around Gregor cheered, and he felt people clap him on the back and congratulate him. Luxa came up to him, her brows slightly furrowed, and whispered in his ear.

"No freaking out this time?" She asked.

"No freaking out this time." He agreed.

They then moved on to training with fliers, and Gregor was paired up with Iapetus, for he had no bond. Angelina and Larry went on the same bats they came on as well. In the drill, you started out hovering above the dummies and then attacking the dummies in a twisting order upon signal from Mareth. The exercise required a lot of skill and sharp turns, which made Gregor, feel slightly uneasy. He really didn't know this flier like he knew Ares. Still, it couldn't be worse than gymnastics. Gregor and Iapetus were fourth in line. Luxa, Angelina, and some other guy Gregor didn't know were hovering in front of him one their bats. Larry was behind Gregor, and he could hear Larry breathing in small, distressed puffs while his bat tried to calm him down. Mareth gave a signal and the random guy took off. He managed to stab most of the dummies, but he missed a few by a long shot. Angelina shot off next, and she stabbed half of the dummies, which brought gentle praise from Mareth. Luxa and Aurora gracefully sped off and the two of them weaved through the dummies gracefully and only missed about five. As Aurora flew upwards to join the other bats near the top of the arena, Gregor saw Mareth give them a signal and Iapetus took off.

Iapetus was pretty good at the maneuvering around the dummies so Gregor could hit all of them. His rager senses were at its peak by the time he was halfway through the drill. As Gregor leaned in to take out one of the dummies, a young, awry flier sped at them. Without warning, Iapetus jerked sideways to avoid the flier and Gregor fell off of him. He fell for a few seconds until he was caught with a thud by who Gregor assumed was Iapetus, although Gregor didn't have time to register which flier he was on. What mattered to him was that he had seventeen more dummies to go. The bat weaved through the dummies in sharp, quick motions and Gregor stabbed all of them in the heart.

"Well done, Overlander." The bat purred as it smoothly glided upwards towards the other bats.

"Thank you," Gregor responded, mostly to be polite. He sat up straighter on the bat, and suddenly he realized something was wrong. Iapetus was flying below him, without a rider. This bat was larger than Iapetus, and stronger. His voice was different too. Deeper. Silkier. Much more familiar. He looked down at the bat's coat, not seeing dark brown, but seeing glossy black. With his heart racing, Gregor glanced at his right wing. His claw was missing.

A/N: Well, at least you know who the bat is now. I was planning on adding more to this chapter including details about why Ares is there and not dead and such, but I wanted this chapter to be a tiny bit suspenseful, since most of the events in it weren't all that eventful. Thank you for the favorites/follows/reviews! Until next time!