Sorry for not updating earlier, schoolwork finally caught up with me.

But I did correct (I think) all the stuff from the previous chapters, really just typos or whatever that I missed, and I also did end up rereading my work. I am very glad and thankful that anyone has made it past those awfully written things that were sadly made by me. But seriously. Thank you.

SAL1: Thanks for catching all of that! I really need to start proofreading my work soon… And thanks for the pointers, although I've been trying and trying and STILL it's hard. I just will never have the great ability to create good names. And I had interpreted what Vikus said to be because, y'know, it's the dead lands, where the people in it would be… Dead. So I assumed they just wouldn't have made it to Regalia and been killed by natural causes… And the thing with the falling, SC never specifies how long the fall was, plus this time it's not directly down, it's slanted a lot, so the descent will be slower.

illusion95: Thanks! I can't wait either!

: Thanks! Glad I could be of service to help the agonizing pain Suzanne Collins leaves us with after the last book. And yes, I do genuinely care about the characters, as long as they are not ones I have made myself. Okay, that's a lie, I'm already in love with Witwyn and I have no idea why. But the rest of the OCs are just meh. And although I don't agree with you that I write like Suzanne Collins, I take the compliment with pride and dignity, thank you, and hope you think so even after reading this chapter and the ones afterwards.

Thatguy (guest): Totally agree. For some reason my characters are always jerks in the beginning and then they (hopefully) get better. And I don't realize it until after I've written far past it and reread it. But, it's part of the character development, so it's okay. Well, character development or my ability and comfortability to write in his POV...

Jedi1: Good! Let's pretend that that was the message I had intended for people to get and not that I was just aimlessly writing whatever came into my mind, okay? :)

There were humans coming out, standing near their bonds, and rats and a few of the other species too, everyone talking whilst Gregor and his friends sat near the entrance, a few already asleep and the others watching in mute horror. Gregor merely kept his eyes closed and tried not to see the bats with their bonds.

He failed, and the image of humans and bats conversing, making sure the other was not harmed, exchanging stories, burned into the front of his mind. But he was determined not to cry.

The group that had found them was conversing not far from them, talking about transportation with a few other representatives of the other groups. Gregor listened for a while, hearing the way the different species conversed with each other easily enough, not fighting, just discussing the transportation of 'the Overlanders.'

Finally, he got up and walked over to them. They became quiet and slowly parted so that he was part of their circle, staring at him reverently. That has to change. Gregor thought to himself.

"Okay, I thought you might want someone who knows the people you're trying to transport to help discuss this." Gregor said. "I'm Gregor." They went around the circle, calling out names that Gregor forgot by the time the next name was said.

"Overlander," a human started, "we have decided that the stronger fliers will take those who need to and those who wish to ride in our flying boats. The gnawers have pleaded to be allowed to run back to Regalia and have been granted the opportunity to. You and your companions may ride either in our boats or on our fliers."

"Do the boats have railings?" Gregor asked.

"I do not understand. What are railings?" The human–Eleanor, Gregor recalled–asked.

"Like, things around the edge to make sure you don't fall."

"But why would one have these railings?"

"To make sure you don't fall." Gregor repeated, looking around the circle. Everyone had a similar expression of confusion.

"But if you fall, we shall catch you." A male bat said uncertainly. "There is no danger in falling."

"We will obviously have one or two bats underneath at all times, to catch anyone who might fall, especially if the younger one is on board." Eleanor said.

"Oh." Gregor nodded slowly. "Okay… But… No offence, but I think there might be some problems getting my friends on board, either a bat–flier–or a boat. Got anything that will go on land, or water?"

"The water is very dangerous, but that is what the boat is for." Another bat, female, said. "If we ever get tired or there is need to be on water, it is big enough to hold us fliers and whoever we were carrying."

"Yeah, but how about something that doesn't involve flying."

"Flying is the fastest way we can get you to Regalia, Gregor." Witwyn said. "Don't you want to get to Regalia?"

"The Underland is still dangerous, Gregor, even if the six main species have formed a truce." Flyfur added.

"What do you have against flying?" A bat asked indignantly before Gregor could respond to the rats. "Haven't you flown before?"

Gregor fell silent. He glared at the bat, trying through hatred to will away the tears threatening to form in his eyes. He did not succeed, but he also did no bring attention to them by wiping them away. He looked to the side.

"We'll fly." He said quietly. "I'll find a way to convince them to fly." A tear escaped his eye. "And I don't have anything against flying." Gregor walked away, back to his companions. "Tell me when we're going to leave." He called over his shoulder, trying to make his voice steady. "I'm going to take a nap."

~0~

Gregor was falling. There was no current, nothing to slow his fall and he knew that if he reached the bottom, that would be the end of him. He looked around, clicked, yelled, but even then he couldn't hear the ends of the hole he was falling through, the bottom of this pit.

"Ares?" He called. Perhaps Ares was somewhere there, in the darkness, and would hear him and save him. After all, what were bonds for? "Ares!" Gregor fell another hundred feet, and somewhere far below him he could hear the rats.

"ARES!" Yelling as loud as he could, Gregor could finally 'see' the cavern around him. There was no Ares.

Suddenly, Gregor was surrounded by the rats, but not just the rats, because humans were there, too, and other animals, bats, but they were all watching him like he was the animal. They were approaching him, and somehow he knew they were going to hurt him. No one there was familiar. There was no Ares.

Gregor yelled, tried to get them back, but he knew it would not be enough, that they would overpower him sometime, and he yelled for help. He yelled for Ripred to help him, for Ares to come and pick him up and take him away, for Howard or Mareth and even Perdita to come to his aid. He yelled for Luxa, asked her to forgive him, asked her if she had done this to him. If this was payback for betraying her.

They got to him. They stabbed him with their swords, shook him to the bone, made him yell out in pain, and then suddenly, there was Perdita and Mareth! They would save him! He called out to them, for them to help him, but they did not fight off his offenders. They approached him stonily, raised their hands–

"Gregor." Mareth's face loomed over him. "Wake up, Gregor."

Gregor blinked, using the dim light and his echolocation to know that he had not been dreaming about Mareth and Perdita, but that they had not been trying to kill him, but to wake him up. Now, everyone was staring at him, backed off, even his friends, and some were even nursing wounds. Gregor looked down to see the bloodied knife in his hand. He hadn't even realized he had it.

"Did I…?" Gregor looked at the Underlanders glaring at him. Mareth nodded.

"You were dreaming, having a nightmare." Mareth said carefully.

"You were having the nightmare again, Gregor, and you were sleep-talking." Lizzie interjected. "You were yelling. We tried to wake you, but you wouldn't wake up, even after it was… supposed to end." Lizzie ended lamely. Gregor closed his eyes and groaned.

"I'm sorry." He said. "They shouldn't be getting worse, especially since I'm here now, but I don't know…" He buried his head in his hands.

"Do you have this nightmare a lot?" Katie asked quietly.

"Almost everyday." He responded, voice muffled by his hands.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"Because you don't tell people that you have dreams of falling, calling for someone who will never be there because you sent him to his death!" Gregor snapped. There was silence, and everyone paused in their work to stare at him. Gregor buried his head farther into his arms. "Just please let me alone for a little bit." He managed, and only a small tremor made its way into his voice.

"Gregor, you did not kill him." Mareth said. "I promise you, you did not."

"He was my bond, and he is dead while I am alive. And that is never right, Mareth, no matter if it were my fault or not."

"And then we move on, because that is what our bonds would have wanted us to do." Mareth responded.

"I failed him." Gregor whispered. "I ruined his life and then his early death, prolonged his suffering, and then lead him through the move that killed him."

"It was not your fault. Ares would not have made the move if he did not approve."

"But he did make it. I knew something was wrong, we both knew something was wrong but it was the last move we needed to make, and then it'd be over. We only needed to make that risky move and then he'd be dead, and I knew there was something wrong even before he struck but Ares didn't move, he kept going and somehow he was the one to die, and not me. Not me, whose death was prophesied, but him, who should've died long ago and whose part in the prophecy was not even existent. I shouldn't have even let him come with me."

"How dare you." A bat nearby said. "To even think that a flier would not go into battle with his bond merely because the prophecy did not specifically say so. For them to let him go when it was obvious he was going to die. Do you believe us fliers so low that we would do such a thing?"

"No. Ares made it clear even before that he would stick by me. For his sake, though, I should have made him stay in Regalia, locked him up in the dungeon just to make sure that at least he lived."

"And he would have hated you even as you were killed by the Bane because you alone was not enough to kill him." Mareth said angrily. "This is foolish talk. What happened is what was meant to happen, and you are meant, now, to let go of this regret, to acknowledge the fact that your bond has died and you are living. Now do something with your life he would have wanted you to do."

~0~

"Gregor, we're going to leave in a few." Katie said. "They said we'll be riding in contraptions that work as a flying boat, or on a flier, whatever that is. Lizzie says the fliers will be like riding in an airplane, so we'll be comfortable. It'll be a quick ride. Come on, maybe it'll get better once you're in Regalia."

Gregor turned to Lizzie, who gave the innocent look she had given him before he went on his road trip. He had been sitting, isolated, watching as Underlanders dressed their wounds and talked, giving him covert glances as they did so. The Overlanders had sat where they were, still looking horrified at everything around them, but Boots had gone off with the crawlers relearning Crawler, and Lizzie talking with Mareth and the other group representatives about their transportation.

"Riding on an airplane…" Gregor mused. "Well, I've never ridden one before, but if airplanes are furry, living, breathing, and very large bats, then Lizzie's got it right." Katie's face paled.

"What…?" She asked in mortification. "What about the flying boats?"

"Oh no, those are probably less comfortable, but definitely non-living contraptions that can float and are suspended in the air by the previously mentioned fliers. And they might have other species in there too, the ones that don't run as fast as rats and who depend on the bats to get them to Regalia fast enough."

"Lizzie!" Katie rounded on Lizzie, who gave the same innocent look.

"I've never been on an airplane either." She said. "I have ridden a flier, though, and those are usually very comfortable, warm, furry, and steady. If you're bored, you two can talk, if you're tired you can lay down and sleep, really, there's enough space."

"A bat…" Katie looked like she was going to be sick as she cast a frightened look at the Underlanders around them.

"They're not that bad." Gregor said reassuringly. "And they would never let anyone fall."

"You sure? Like, what if they hate me?" Katie asked uncertainly. "That'd be an easy way to kill me."

"No. Then they'd be in trouble. No bat would let you fall, not unless they had to choose between you and their bond, or someone closer to them than you."

"That's good to know."

"Katie, none of us, save Lizzie and Boots, want to go on the bats or the boats, alright? It's what we need to do."

"You don't want to go?"

"I'm scared of heights." Gregor felt strange finally admitting it to the world. "I hadn't while Ares had been around, but…" Gregor looked down, staring at the rock underneath his feet. "It's gotten worse as my dreams have, as I've slowly realized he won't be there for me."

"Ares." A bat that Gregor hadn't really given much notice to, or had purposely ignored, Gregor realized now–the bat was big and black, the spitting image of Ares, only this bat was female. "Pardon me, but I couldn't help overhearing what you just said. Your bond was Ares, yes?"

"Yeah." Gregor said softly. "Why?"

"He is my relative. My uncle, I believe."

"Your uncle."

"Yes, although I never knew him. I was born after the war."

"I see."

"We would never let anyone fall, Overlander." This time she addressed Katie, but there was an underlying message, like she was telling Gregor, too, that just because Ares wasn't there didn't mean he had to fear falling.

"I'm sorry… Are you talking to me?" Katie sounded faint.

"Well, yes." The bat cocked her head and looked puzzled.

"Oh…" Katie tried for a smile, but it looked more like a grimace.

"What's your name?" Gregor asked the bat, to let Katie off the hook. Katie looked relieved and excused herself from the conversation, going to talk to Sam and Pat.

"Nyx."

"Nyx." Gregor repeated.

"Yes. She was the goddess of night. Seems fitting, doesn't it, me being dark and black?"

"I guess, yeah."

"Although, at the same time, darkness only affects humans, and in a negative way. I'm lucky people accept my presence."

"What do you mean?"

"Some humans are wary of me because of my name. Others because I am related to Ares, and he is known for doing many dangerous and illegal things, and I look exactly like him, apparently."

"Yeah. You do."

"Is that good or bad?"

"You're a better judge of that than I."

"Would you trust me?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"No one wants to be my bond, because Ares let his first bond fall to his death."

"Ares did what was right. Henry deserved it, and since Ares had no clue of it, he had the right to choose who to save."

"And he saved you, didn't he?"

"Yes. He saved me."

Ifeellikethereshouldbeapagebreaksohereoneisbutmaybeitshouldn'tbehereoopsifitshouldn't.

A few minutes later, Boots was playing in the air with the bats, learning to properly ride one, and Gregor was trading stories with a bat who was shunned by nearly everyone, curious about her relative who was both criminal and hero. He didn't ever fear he was going to fall.

aslkdjhfaljfhg Don't ask me where Nyx came from, she just appeared there. And don't ask about Eleanor, either. Actually, just don't ask. Just tell me what you think of it, what you thought, what I need to change, to add, anything! Everything makes me feel so loved when I read them, just something to show me people read this and I'll be happy. :)