Hey guys welcome to chapter 10! This chapter I promise Gregor will make it to Regalia from feedback I've heard you all want the reunion and I will deliver! Thank you so much for the continued support. I really appreciate it. Don't forget to follow, review and vote on the poll on my profile. Suggestions for where the story should go is very welcome. It will help me write faster as I will have more ideas. Anyway onto the chapter you have all been waiting for.

Disclaimer: I don't think anyone reads these.

Chapter 10: The Reunion

Right as Gregor jumped his grip on his knife and his uncles increased. He clicked to see if they were following and sure enough they had all jumped one by one after him. Gregor had forgotten how long the way down was it felt like an eternity. While they were falling Gregor got lost in his head, with everything going on it was impossible for Gregor's mind to stop thinking.

What had those marking's been and why were they so close to the overland? Gregor had so many questions but no answers.

After what felt like an eternity Gregor could finally see the floor with his echolocation. Good news was it didn't seem like there were any creatures. Gregor relaxed thinking they would be safe. He thumped against the ground and got up and brushed the dirt off of him and waited for the rest of them to land safely on the ground. He echoed to make sure that they were safe but then he could see something through his echolocation. A body around a bend near them. Gregor cleared the distance between him and the bend putting himself between the body he noticed and the rest of his group. He waited, not daring to turn away from the bend for them to land behind him. He echoed again and saw that his uncle had just landed and his friends soon followed. Gregor also noticed that the body hadn't moved at all, he couldn't tell what creature it was since it lay curled in a ball on the floor.

Gregors uncle flicked his flashlight on, illuminating the once dark cave.

"I'll keep mine on, you guys leave yours off. We want to save as much battery as possible, plus Gregor will be able to lead us without light." Gregor's uncle told them.

His two friends murmured in agreement.

"Where do we go now Gregor?" Emma asked Gregor.

"Wait here." Gregor commanded, still not turning from where the body was.

"Why, what is there?" Larry questioned in a shaking voice.

"I'm not sure."Gregor responded clutching both knives in his hand.

He slowly turned around and handed his uncle his knife then told them he was going to go check it out.

"We should come and look as well" Emma protested.

"No, stay here." Gregor commanded "If it's safe i'll let you know and you can come"

"He's right," Gregor's uncle told them "He can handle himself based on what he told us, we can't."

Gregor nodded to his uncle and turned back around and slowly made his way over to the corner. He kept echoing but didn't notice anything else other than the unmoving body. As he turned the corner he walked up to the body and bent down to touch it. Right as he touched it he withdrew his hand immediately. He felt a still hot blood on his hands. He could tell this was a bat. He clicked loudly to get a clear image and two things popped out to him, first the blood was in the exact same pattern as the bat he saw under Central Park and the bat seemed to be in a position of covering something. Gregor moved the bat wing slowly but carefully to uncover an underlander. The underlander also had fresh blood in the same pattern. Gregor realized that the bat and human under Central Park must have had dried blood in that pattern.

Gregor couldn't understand what these patterns could possibly mean. He racked his mine for any clues but couldn't think of anything.

"Gregor can we come, is it safe?" Larry called out.

Gregor not wanting to be there any longer and having already memorized the pattern turned back toward where his friends were and headed back.

"Can we see what was there?" Larry asked.

"No it's better you don't" Gregor responded with a bit of worry in his voice.

"Why? What was it and why do you seem worried?"Emma questioned.

"I'll explain later let's just get going" Gregor responded with finality lacing his voice.

"We should listen to him, he knows best about this place" Gregor's uncle told them.

"I'll lead the way with Larry and Emma behind me, you can pull up the rear but if you notice anything let me know." Gregor told the group.

"Sounds like a plan" his uncle said.

Gregor turned to start heading to Regalia, a mixture of emotions stirred inside him.

Gregor was walking when he realized he had no idea where he needed to go. He came back to his senses to look around and realized that there was only one tunnel in the direction of Regalia. Gregor was filled with relief when he realized that.

He started heading down at a moderate jog, not too fast though, so his friends and uncle could keep up and wouldn't tire out soon.

Greogr's mind was racing with ideas and possibilities of what would happen when he made it to Regalia and would meet his old friends, his old mentor and most of all… Luxa. Gregor had conflicting feelings about his reunion with all the people he used to know here. A lot could have happened here in 3 years, for all he knows they could have forgotten him, and as much as he knows it isn't true the idea of it is one of his biggest fears.

Gregor lost track of time in his head as he had been mindlessly running down the tunnel thinking of being back here in the underland, till he was pulled back to reality by a yelp behind him.

Gregor whipped his head around to see what happened and saw that everything was fine but Larry had just tripped.

Relieved that there wasn't something attacking them Gregor asked his friend if he was ok.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Larry responded although when he tried to get up it was noticeable that he was in fact not fine.

He had started to get up and put is feet under him when he fell back to the floor and grabbed his foot while crying out.

"What's wrong?" All three of them called out, worry lacing their voices.

"Nothing!"Larry growled through gritted teeth but it was obvious something wasn't right.

"We need to get him to Regalia immediately, the doctors there will be able to fix him up" Gregor commanded.

"How should we get him there?" Emma questioned "He's clearly unable to walk properly."

"I'll help him, he can lean on me and use his good foot, I don't think we are too far away now." Gregor told her.

"Ok let's just get there quick i'm getting freaked out!" Emma whispered quickly.

Imagine how she's going to react when she sees all the creatures The Underland holds Gregor thought but he didn't say anything.

Gregor extended his hand out and helped Larry up and Larry wrapped his arm around Gregors shoulder and used his good foot. Once they were ready to go Gregor started walking forward with Emma behind him and his uncle pulling up rear.

Larry hopped his way along putting a lot of his weight on Gregor although Gregor didn't mind.

After about another 10 minutes Gregor started to notice light coming from up ahead. He was relieved that they made it all the way without coming across any trouble, other then Larry tripping and injuring himself.

"It's just up ahead!" Gregor exclaimed with joy, running right past a couple tunnels that were off the side of the tunnel they were in.

Gregor picked up the speed and started slowly jogging, he forgot everything and his emotions were all over the palace, he was feeling excited despite the bodies he found, not knowing what to expect once he showed up.

The light was drawing nearer and nearer, Gregor thought that there was nothing that could stop him from reuniting with his friends in Regalia, when there was a yelp from behind and he heard his friends sprinting towards him and then he heard claws.

Gregor spun around and echoed to see what was going on. What he saw terrified him, he realized Emma and his uncle had seen the giant rats in one of the side tunnels and were now running for their lives. How could I have missed that, Gregor thought to himself. He realized he had been too excited being so close to Regalia that he was too distracted to and his uncle were now behind him and Larry was still leaning on him.

"You guys help Larry, and go towards the light as fast as you can, and give me your knife!" Gregor commanded.

Gregor's uncle handed him his knife and helped Larry off along with Emma. They were off towards Regalia and Gregor turned around to face the rats.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" a large rat in the middle of the group in a relaxed position sneered.

The two rats on the side of the large rat that was laying down started moving towards him. They didn't seem to tensed up, they probably thought he couldn't see in the dark and he could use that to his advantage.

As soon as one of the rats was within striking distance Greogr leaped forward and thrust his knife towards it. It jumped back in surprise and Gregor had managed to cut it on its belly, not that much damage but enough to shock it.

Then Gregor could feel his rager senses coming, it had been so long and he didn't know if he could control it.

His vision started to split and Gregor could feel himself being pulled from the driver seat. He started doing all sorts of attacks that he didn't control. The two rats that had been advancing were suddenly both being fended off and pushed back. They got cut after cut, but Gregor knows the reason he was doing so well is the element of surprise. The third rat took notice and was on his feet immediately. The third rat leaped at him and pushed him off balance and Gregor scrambled to get up. Once Gregor was up he saw the two rats had backed off and the third was just standing there, as if in shock.

Gregor felt control slip away even more and then he doesn't remember what happened. All he remembers is seeing claws and fur and a tail.

In the middle of this intense fight, that looked like the two most powerful foruses in The Underland fighting Greogr got smacked across the face with a tail. This jarred him so much and the third rat was on him in an instance. Gregor got ready to dodge a claw or tail but what happened next surprised him. The rat faked a tail flick to hsi right, then kicked him to the ground and … sat on him. Gregor was so stunned by the turn of events his rager senses turned off.

The rat flicked its tail and disarmed him rendering Gregor useless, but Gregor wasn't going down without a fight, rager or no rager, knife or no knife. He started flailing and punching anything he could. The rat simply put its tail over his hands.

"Is that how you greet a old… friend?" sneered an all to sarcastic voice.

"Ripred?!" Gregor yelled.

Gregor couldn't believe it, that it was actually Ripred.

"Yes its me boy" Ripred said sarcastically but with a hint of emotion in his voice.

"Now if I get off will you go full rager with no control again?" Ripred commented sarcastically.

"Yes i'll control myself" Gregor said somewhat annoyed he couldn't control his rager.

"Good you are a very uncomfortable mat" Ripred yawned lazily "Now explain what you are doing here" All the laziness gone from his voice.

"It's a long story ill tell once we are with everyone else but to sum it up I found a flier and its human dead near the Central Park entrance and had to come down." Gregor mumbled still shocked by everything going down.

"Ok, your right let's get you to Regalia rather just explain it once anyway, don't want to here you yapping about it twice" Ripred told him sarcastically "Come on Regalia is close and you'll want to get your face chekd out from my tail hit."

"Yeah, let's go" Gregor agreed.

The two of them headed down while the other two rats stayed behind.

They got to the entrance to the arena and Gregor saw his friends waiting, when they saw Ripred they looked terrified.

"What are you looking at? If I wanted to kill you, you would all be dead" Ripred snorted at them.

They all looked at Gregor and he said" This is an old friend of mine, he can be trusted"

They all got to the entrance and one step further they should be in it.

"Lets put on a show with your entrance Gregor, the arena is packed for a audience to witness" Ripred whispered, mischief in his eyes.

"What do you have in mind?" Gregor responded.

And with that the rat ran right into the stadium and acted crazy till the guards tried to control him. Guard fell left and right and Gregor knew exactly what he meant

"Yall just enter and wait here, I have an entrance to make!" Gregor said and with that he ran into the arena and dove for Ripred.

Eventually the guard backed off and it was Gregor and Ripred the two most powerful forces in the Underland going at each other. This time Gregor was able to control his rager side and it was evenly matched. There were dozens of guards flying over them, unable to intervene. They both accumulated cuts and scratches but nothing major. It seemed like it would go on forever but Ripred had a slight advantage, getting more cuts and scratches in on Gregor. The arena was completely silenced, never having seen such forces go at eachother like they were. Gregor's friends and uncle stood at the edge watching the fight in complete shock, probably not realizing the extent of his fighting abilities. Right when Gregor was going to try to swipe at Ripred's feet and make him fall, a blur of gold caught his eyes and in that moment Ripred took advantage of it and knocked Gregor over,disarmed him and held his claw to Gregor's neck.

Ripred leaned in and whispered "DId I teach you nothing? Never get distracted… lover boy"

Gregor scrambled to his feet but knew the spar was over. Ripred stood next to him and turned in circle's to face all of the crowd.

Suddenly Gregor saw the gold flash again and saw a gold bat with its reider diving towards them. Gregor knew it was Aurora, and ... Luxa.

His stomach turned he didn't know what to expect.

"Who is this Ripred? How are they able to take you in a spar for so long and at the same level?" the rider commanded.

"Queen Luxa" Ripred roared mockingly and a slight eye roll "This is… The Great Warrior, Gregor"

The arena burst into commotion but threw it all Gregor looked up and saw Luxa. She was as beautiful as ever.

And slowly she looked down, shocked, and made eye contact with him, and it communicated a sense of joy and relief they both felt and much more in a single second.

And that's the end of the chapter! Hope you enjoyed please follow and like. Thank you guys so much for 3,300 views that is insane! Don't forget to review and please if you have any suggestions for what Gregor goes up against let me know! I desperately need help figuring it out,I'm not sure where I was going with the patterns and I am open to any suggestions. I am so sorry for the long wait, i'm trying to get faster updates but school is taking up a lot of time. Reviewing always motivates me so please review if you want faster updates. Any suggestions about anything is welcome. Also please vote on the poll in my profile. Also, longest chapter yet! Thank you so much for sticking around. Fly you high-Proud Warrior