Rescue Arc, Part 2, meet my readers. Readers, meet Rescue Arc, Part 2. I'm going to take a chance and guess that about 75-100% of you guys wanted to kick my ass for killing off Ripred. For that, I deeply apologize. I really thought Ripred was awesome, but seriously, get a grip on reality, guys. He's not invincible. He's not immortal. If you miss him, go do what Hazard did with Thalia and keep him in your heart.

Philosophical note: Victory is a glorious event. But even the greatest victories can shallow compared to what is coming in the future. Always beware of challenges too great for you to conquer. If not, your victory will fall into an abyss of loss.

At this very moment, the entire group was grieving for the loss of their comrade as they flew in the direction that Ripred pointed out. Gregor and Luxa were probably taking it the worst, as the giant rat had been like a second father to them. Raphael, in his blunt way, had said that they should move on and find Nerissa, but at the same time, he too was grieving for the loss of a being he had only known for a few days. The only difference was that Gregor and Luxa were devastated enough to cry. Raphael was making a mental attempt to assure Ripred's spirit, if it existed, that he would do what Ripred died to do…save Nerissa.

"We are nearly there. I can detect numerous cutters ahead," Ladon said.

"…Ares, Aurora, Ladon. Please take Luxa and Gregor out of the lair. I will go on ahead and get Nerissa out on my own," Raphael said. The three bats stopped in their tracks.

"What are you saying?" Ares said, hovering mid-flight.

"Before I teamed up with Gregor, I was alone. Always, always alone. And I loved it. No restraints, no one telling me what to do, nothing to hold me back. I was a free spirit," Raphael said. He put his hands up when Ares looked at him quizzically. "Hey, don't get me wrong. Teamwork suits me just fine, but I would be lying if I said that I didn't miss my old ways from time to time. This is one of those times when I feel like I would be better off on my own. Besides, have you seen Gregor and Luxa? They're in no condition to fight. Luxa is too important, and Gregor is our secret weapon. There's no point in risking their lives."

"There's no point in risking your life, either." Surprisingly, this came from Luxa. "What is it with you and your self-sacrificial ways, Raphael? You are the Guardian, someone every bit as important as Gregor. You are not going anywhere in this lair if you are not accompanied by anyone else. We are not leaving. Nerissa is my cousin, and she is the next in line for the throne should I die. I am going. And there is nothing you can say to stop me."

"Gregor, a little help here?" Raphael asked, despite the fact that he already knew the answer.

Gregor looked at him, smiling. "No way, Raphael. Once Luxa sets her mind on something, even I can't stop her. And besides, you're not going alone. If you go alone in there, you are going to die. I'm not going to stand around and waste another comrade. Ripred would say that we should stick together, and I'm saying the same. We are staying, no matter what," he said.

Raphael suddenly grinned. "Sweet. Just like how I expected it to happen," Ladon laughed and flew ahead.

Luxa looked at Gregor. "He is very strange. Intelligent, but strange," she remarked.

Gregor grinned. "Trust me, that's exactly what he wants your first impression of him to be. He's a loyal friend, though, and a great person once you get to know him," he said.

"Ladon seems to like him a lot. I would not be surprised or displeased if they became bonds," Aurora said.

"Hey, guys, check this out! I found something!" Raphael called. Ares and Aurora flew towards where Raphael was hunched over on the ground, intently looking at something in his hands. Upon closer inspection, the others saw that it was a piece of red fabric.

When Luxa saw it, her eyes widened. "That's…" She reached into her pocket and pulled out another piece of fabric. "When Nerissa, Aurora, and I were knocked out, I ripped this from one of our kidnappers." After comparing it to the piece that Raphael found, they saw that the material was identical.

"Do you think this means that the kidnapper was…human?" Raphael asked.

"Betrayal in Regalia…great, we might have to deal with another Henry," Gregor said.

"Do not mention that name in front of me," Luxa hissed.

Gregor held up his hands in apology, then took the fabric Luxa held and stuffed both pieces into a pocket his armor had. "Let's discuss this later. I want to look the fabrics more closely, but right now, our top priority is rescuing Nerissa," he said.

"Out of the frying pan and into the fire. How nice." Raphael muttered as they climbed back onto their bats and flew towards the Queen's chambers. Nerissa…we're almost there! Stay strong! I don't want to find your dead body on the floor! he thought. Then he spotted a tunnel nearby. "Hey, guys, where does this lead?" Without waiting for an answer, he and Ladon flew off.

Ares and Aurora halted mid-flight. "Raphael? Where are you going?" Gregor called. They waited a few minutes before Raphael came back.

"That tunnel is a secret passageway into the Queen's chambers. It drops off directly into a wall above the floor. It's kind of like the tunnel that we used to get into the jail," Raphael said.

"And Nerissa? Is she all right?" Luxa asked.

"She's alive," Raphael said.

Gregor grinned. "Great. Now, we're going to change tactics. This is what we do. If my plan goes the way I want it to go, we could end the war right now!"

Meanwhile…

Nerissa wasn't dead yet, but she might as well have been. After meeting Raphael in her dream last night, she took his advice and with some difficulty, ate all the food that was presented to her, much to Luxa and Aurora's surprise. When she finished her food, she found that Raphael had right. She did feel a bit stronger than she normally did.

But that bit of strength was taken from her as easily as she had been taken from Regalia when the cutter guards came in to bring her to the Queen's Chambers and the Queen herself told her to predict the outcome of the war. No matter how many times she said that she couldn't predict human events, the Queen did not care. And so she was subjected to several attacks that left her with painful bruises.

"Tell me, Regalian wench…predict that the cutters will win. They say that your prophecies have a very high chance of being true, so predict that we will win," the Queen hissed. Nerissa did not know why the Queen knew her language, but she wasn't exactly in a suitable mental condition to think.

"I've tried to tell you. I can't predict who will win this war. My powers do not show what is to become of human affairs," Nerissa murmured. The Queen screeched in rage and turned to a cutter servant that was cowering against a rock. She was about to order it to get a torture instrument when Nerissa spoke up again. "But I will tell you this." The Queen looked behind her and was rather surprised to see not fear, but defiance in Nerissa's eyes. "You will not win. The Warrior will return, and the Guardian will be with him. And when they are here…your army will be crushed. You will fail against them, Cutter Queen, just as so many others have."

The Queen screeched and smacked Nerissa on the face with her leg. The claws on her leg turned the result from the normal bruise to a cut. "Servant! Retrieve that obsidian blade that our associate left to us!" The cutter servant nodded fearfully and scuttled out of the room, pushing the rock in the entrance open and closed. The Queen put her claw under Nerissa's chin and lifted the girl's defiant face to her insect head. "So unusually defiant today. Well, I'll make sure that it goes away. Soon enough, you will be begging me to stop with the torture."

Suddenly, they heard the crunch that a blade made when it cut into an insect's shell, followed by a screech of pain that was quickly cut short, and the sound of something made of glass or metal falling to the ground. The Queen pointed at her other two servants in the room. "Find out what made that ruckus!" The two servants nodded and crawled out, pushing the rock open again.

This time, though, the rock was not shoved closed. Once it was almost completely open, two blades diagonally slashed the two cutters. After they fell to the ground, a boy about Nerissa's age stomped on their heads, crushing them. That boy was Raphael.

"Raphael!" she whispered as he, Luxa, Aurora, and Aurora's brother Ladon walked into the room and glared at the Cutter Queen.

When Raphael caught sight of Nerissa, he grinned. "Nerissa, last night I told you that we were coming to rescue you." He pointed a bladed shield at the Cutter Queen. "I wasn't lying," he added, making Nerissa smile.

Change perspective…

"Who are you?" the Cutter Queen hissed.

"Whoa, she speaks English. Didn't see that coming. Thanks for the sword, by the way," Raphael said, holding up a blade made of a black glass-like material that seemed extremely sharp. He promptly shattered and crushed it with his shields.

"That was…" Nerissa started.

"Obsidian, I know. I am quite knowledgeable in the field of medieval weapons and their materials. Obsidian is a volcanic glass. When it's used as a material for making blades weapons, its sharpness rivals, if not exceeds, the sharpness of an iron sword. Although it is easy to break, obsidian can be used to make very lethal weapons. There's no way that you could have just picked this up and used it. Someone gave it to you. Who was it?" Raphael asked.

The Queen put her mandibles around Nerissa's neck, ready to slice the girl's head off. "Drop your weapons now, or she dies," the Queen hissed.

"Let her go!" Raphael commanded.

"I don't think I will do that. Drop your weapons, and I will let her go. The more you hesitate, the tighter I will squeeze…" the Queen said, slowly beginning to strangle Nerissa.

"Stop it!" Luxa yelled.

The Queen ignored her. Nerissa's eyes widened as she saw her four rescuers hesitate. "No! Don't do it! If you surrender, Regalia will fall! It all depends on you! I mean nothing!" she croaked, struggling to breathe. But her words were in vain. Raphael unattached his shields and let them clatter to the ground, followed by Luxa's rapier. Aurora and Ladon looked at each other and lighted down, no longer in a battle position.

"There, that wasn't so hard." The Queen let go of Nerissa's neck, letting her take rushing breaths. The insect fluttered towards them on her wings. "Now what should I do with you?" she wondered when she was a small length away from the four so-called rescuers.

To her surprise, Raphael let out a smug grin. "You can start by dying!" he shouted.

Ares suddenly flew in from a hole on the wall behind Nerissa with Gregor on his back. The great black bat threw the girl on his back in front of Gregor. The Queen turned around, and that moment was all that Raphael needed. He whipped out a knife and sliced some of the Queen's legs off. "You…blasted…"

Raphael laughed. "I always carry knives on my person. One can never be too careful," he said.

The Queen reared up on her remaining legs. Raphael was about to attack, but Luxa reacted even before he did. Using her agility, she leaped to the Queen's right side and whipped out a very familiar dagger. She swept her leg under the Queen, tripping the giant ant. Unfortunately, that move spelled the Queen's doom as Luxa plunged her dagger into the Queen's head. With a last gurgle, the Queen fell. Luxa smiled at Raphael. "Agreed," was all she said.

"A victory fit for a queen, and a death fit for a queen," Ares remarked.

Gregor flew up on Ares. Nerissa jumped off and ran into Raphael's arms once more. "You really came," she said. This time, Raphael sighed, smiling a bit and shaking his head before putting his arms around her.

Looking at the two embracing teenagers, Gregor smiled. "They're not exactly acting like they've just met," he said.

"Yes. They're acting like they're reunited lovers," Luxa said. She smiled as she picked up her rapier and Gregor wrapped his arms around her from behind. "Like us," she added, turning her head to kiss him.

Just then, Gregor noticed what she was holding. "Luxa, is that Solovet's dagger?" he asked.

"Yes. It's my dagger now. You cannot and will not have it," she said, guessing his thoughts.

Gregor shrugged. "I was never going to ask to have it back. Just consider it as my parting gift from all those years ago," he advised.

"I always have," Luxa replied.

"I hate to break things up, but I would advise that we should be getting out right about no," Ladon said. The four humans broke apart and quickly climbed onto their bats. Raphael helped Nerissa onto Ladon. The three bats flew out of the cave. At first, they opted to take the secret path, but as they flew over, they saw that there was no point.

Below, numerous cutters were lying dead on the floor. Numerous others were fighting against each other. A few of the smarter ones noticed the passing travelers overhead and tried to intercept them, but although these cutters were more intelligent than average, they could not understand that the bats were too far high to reach with a simple jump. Of course, those jumps usually led to their deaths, for when they landed, their former comrades tore them apart.

They flew to the jail, where they paid their last respects in front of Ripred's torn up body. Then, they flew up and out through the secret passage where they came in. Luckily, the tunnel was just wide enough to fly through.

After some flying, they finally managed to find their way out. Raphael stretched. "So, it was over before I even got started. Pity," he said.

Gregor took out the two pieces of red fabric from his pocket and looked at them, then remembered the obsidian blade and what Raphael had said. "No," he whispered. "It's not over yet." He looked into the distance. "There are still a few things that need to be taken care of…back in Regalia."

And that is done. As Gregor said, it's not over yet. There's no way I'm going to make a story that shallow. For now, though, I just hope that you guys can forgive me for killing off Ripred.

Please review!