Gregor walked out of his apartment in a trance. As he made his way down the stairs to the basement of the building, he considered what Ripred had said; " You haven't forgotten anything; you've just blocked it out." That actually made a lot of sense. Until Ripred showed up today, everything he had known in the Underland had seemed like something completely separate, like a dream he had had when he was very young. He guessed that the more time passed, the more he had buried the memories.

He swung opened the door to the laundry room; no one else was there. He crept over to the grate, feeling a little anxious. Who would he find? Surely not Luxa...

He cleared his throat awkwardly and spoke into the grate "Er...Ripred...says you can uh, come up now. I guess."

No sooner had he said that than did a large, dark gray wing poke out of the grate. He racked his brain, trying to remember if he knew the bat to whom the wing belonged.

Suddenly, a head of dark, curly hair popped up, followed by a pair of bright green eyes. The kid, who looked very familiar to Gregor, jumped out of the grate.

"Gregor the Overlander. It has been quite a while."

And, a twinge of recognition shot through him. "Hazard! Hey, man. How are you doing?"

Hazard was Luxa's halflander cousin: the son of her Uncle Hamnet, who died in battle in search of the plague cure, and a deceased Overlander woman.

Hazard grinned. "I'm well. And yourself?"

Gregor was amazed at how much older he sounded, how much he seemed to have matured. But then, it had been a few years. He'd probably be at least 10, now.

"Alright, I guess. I can tell you though, I hadn't been expecting-"

Just then, another person hobbled out of the grate. He was an old man, around his grandma's age, with violet eyes, silver hair, and translucent skin. He looked a little unsteady, and Gregor noticed that he carried a cane.

After the man straightened himself up, and brushed off his clothes he spread his arms in a gesture of welcome. "Gregor. It is good to see you. You've grown."

Vikus. He was Luxa's grandfather, a man whose life, Gregor recalled, was flipped almost entirely upside down by war, when all he desired was a life of peace. He was also one of the Underlanders that Gregor had trusted above many others. He was also Gregor's friend.

"Hey, Vikus!" He stepped forward to shake his hand. "It's been...awhile."

"Indeed it has." Vikus had many scars and wrinkles; he also seemed to still have trouble walking on the left side, probably from when he'd had the stroke. However, there was an unmistakable happy gleam in the old man's eye, and Gregor knew that he'd found some peace at last. Well, not about the Cutters, but peace in some form or another. The last time Gregor had been in the Underland, Vikus was still trying to cope with the dual shock of his wife's betrayal and then her death.

"We should probably go back up-" Gregor froze. How was he going to get these to Underlanders up to his apartment without being seen?

"Hold on." Gregor told them. "I just have to check to make sure the stairwell is empty."

He left them in the laundry room, and jogged hurriedly around the corner. He saw that the elevator was working. That was good. Even though Gregor preferred to use the stairs, if the elevator was working, no one else in the apartment building would be using them.

He gestured for Vikus and Hazard to follow him. He led them up the stairs (Hazard was helping Vikus, who could tackle stairs, but needed a bit of assistance) and into the apartment.

The first thing that Gregor noticed is that Ripred had shut all of the blinds covering the small windows. For one wild minute, he thought that perhaps he planned to kidnap them. Then he realized that one, that really wouldn't make any sense, and two, he probably did it so that Vikus and Hazard wouldn't go blind from the Overland sunshine.

"Ah, Ripred!" Vikus said. "I assume you...explained the situation to Gregor?"

Before Ripred could answer, Gregor said, "Yeah...I've still got some questions about that...how soon are the Cutters supposed to be...what is it...coming up to the Overland? Have they done stuff in Regalia already?"

Vikus looked pointedly at Ripred, who shrugged before stretching and yawning.

"It seems that Ripred..."

"What?" Gregor asked, shooting Ripred a glare. Remembering past experiences with Ripred, he felt sure now that he hadn't been told the entire truth.

"Well, the Cutters haven't actually done anything...yet."

Vikus explained that they have a few allies living among the Cutters that have been keeping the Regalians up-to-date on important matters. It was not until recently that they uncovered plans of the ants's military to take both the Regalian and Fount territories, and possibly some parts of the Overland.

"Wait a second...why do the Cutters want to come to the Overland?"

He tried to imagine giant red ants swarming 5th Avenue, ducking in out of commercial stores.

"I would imagine that their wish is to gain as much territory as possible. Land opened to the sun is not ideal for their preferred living conditions, but they would most certainly find it useful for traveling." Vikus replied.

Traveling? Gregor was thoroughly confused. It must have shown on his face, too, for Hazard, who had been milling around curiously observing the appliances in the kitchen jumped into the conversation; "You must not think of the Underland as only what surrounds Regalia, Gregor."

"Yes." said Vikus, gazing thoughtfully out of the window as he spoke, " The Underground caverns, most creatures in the Underland know, stretch much farther than what is blocked off by Dead Lands and the Waterway. The Dead lands, as far as anyone knows, stretch out long enough being devoid of nourishment and life to be an efficient route, and the Waterway is useless to all but those with the ability to swim great distances or hands to make boats or wings to fly. "

"So...the ants-I mean Cutters want to, uh, use the Overland to pass over the Dead Land and the Waterway to find more space, then?" Gregor asked uncertainly.
Clearly, the Cutters did not know much about what the Overland was like, and how you cannot, well, just be a freakishly sized ant and go walking around up there. Then again, if they did have an idea of the Overland and still are confident in their ability to take it over...well. Gregor didn't really want to think about that.

"Essentially." Ripred said, gnawing on what looked like an old shoe. Gregor didn't want to know where it came from.

"However, we suspect that their intentions are to wipe out as many Warmbloods as they can during the process. From their perspective, it was Warmbloods stole their land; not just Underland humans. And, I guess you could say that we did- the Cutters and the Crawlers had been settled in the Underland thousands of years before Warmbloods had even evolved properly."

Gregor supposed that made sense. He knew that cockroaches and other bugs had been around for awhile. Although, you didn't see the Crawlers making a big fuss about land distribution.

Gregor felt his head begin to pound. "So...they're just passing through the Overland, then? I mean, they don't have any reason to hate the Overlanders..."

"Doubtful. I'm sure that the only way they think they can keep Overland territory easily accessible is by using force. And again, they don't really care what kind of warmblood you are." Ripred said.

Vikus's eyebrows were furrowed and he was frowning. "Not all Cutters think such things, Ripred. Some desire to live in harmony with other creatures."

"Yes, Vikus. But do you forget that the handful that do desire different things from the rest of the Colony have been killed off, or are else too afraid to speak their minds?"

"We have been making many attempts to negotiate a peaceful land agreement with the Cutters-" Vikus began to say, but Ripred interrupted him.

"But they really aren't the "negotiating" type. They don't think, they act. You saw in the Jungle three years ago; they are extremely militaristic. Most Cutters live with a mob mentality. They do whatever they must to increase their numbers. Their current plan is to take advantage of their increasing population size, and just-" Ripred spread a paw out to each side here "-spread out. Veni Vidi Vici. You've studied Caesar in that school of yours, haven't you?"

"Er...I might have, yeah."

"Well, think on that scale with the Cutters; Julius Caesar, Napoleon, The Huns...maybe even Polk. Ruthless, relentless expansionism. Except there's hundreds of thousands of them. With piercing mandibles."
Right. Ripred studied Overland history in his spare time.

"Alright..." He found himself shaking his head: Never in a million years would he have expected to come home from his first day of school and start talking about the logistics of giant ant colonization with a bunch of Underlanders.

"So, I get that I have to watch out for these things trying to pass through the Overland-"

"-Hence the piercing mandibles-" Ripred spoke over him pointedly.

"-but why are you guys here? What do you need from us?"

Ripred sighed dramatically. " I do hate when I have to explain things; why do you think? We need connections to the Overland, don't we? People that know the land...People that live on the land. The Overlanders will be affected if this isn't dealt with. They need to be represented. You and your family are the only ones we're really on 'speaking terms' with."

"We thought" Vikus said, smiling at Gregor, "that you or some member of your family might be able to act as a guide of sorts. And, perhaps, act as a sort of Overland Representative at meetings."

Gregor stood, facing these people, who were watching him and waiting for him to say something; to make some kind of decision.

"I really don't-"

"This really shouldn't be such a hard thing to consider, Overlander, if you remember that everyone you care about Under, Over, and in-between is in danger-"

"I NEVER ASKED FOR ANY OF THIS" He found himself bellowing at Ripred. "WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? Why-" He rubbed his head, feeling drained and confused, "Why is this happen-"

The front door swung opened suddenly.

"Gregor, what on earth are you yelling-"

"...about."

The room was dead silent. Lizzie dropped her school bag to the ground with a loud thunk. Her eyes were round circles, and her face was pale.

Gregor broke the silence first. "Hey, Liz. We, um, have visitors."

Lizzie slumped down on the floor, sitting against the wall. "I can see that." She said faintly.