Here's my second chapter. Hope you enjoy! I'm sorry that I haven't written in a long time, but I hope you enjoy anyway. The rating has been upgraded, for violence, but nothing ugly. It's no longer going to be happy and cheerful, but enjoy anyway.

Life goes On...

Will walked down the street on that cold January day, aged not by the years since he had last traversed these street corners, but by what had happened to him in that time. He no longer tried to stay invisible, to not attract attention. He knew that he could deal with whatever this world had to throw at him.

He hadn't heard from his mother, not that he was likely to. Since he had returned to his world, he had often thought about how his mother might no longer be stalked by the invisible demons, hoping that the angels would have destroyed all the specters.

He walked up the lane that had once been familiar to him, avoiding the worries that accompanied the seemingly empty house, with weeds long overgrown, that he used to live in. He knew that Mrs. Cooper would not have sent his mother back. She was a kind woman. She would not abandon his mother.

Until now, he had shut out the fears of losing his mother. Until now, seeing the door to Mrs. Cooper's house ajar and all the lights off, he had let himself believe that even after 2 years, his mother would be all right. Until now.

He raced inside and began to search the house. There was no electricity, and everything in the fridge was rotten or moldy, or both. The house had obviously not been lived in for months, if not years. There was nothing for him to do, nowhere for him to turn for information on what had happened. His mother was lost, dead for all he knew, and there was nothing that he could do to help her.

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There was nothing on the horizon. All he could see was barren wasteland for miles on end. The slight hum of the gyropter brought him back from his daydream. Gregory was a man from a world unknown to Lyra or Will, who had heard of Lord Asriel's goal, and had eagerly joined the cause. He was willing to do anything for a cause that he saw was just, and indeed, had sacrificed much.

Since he announced that he was going to take the journey between the worlds, his entire family, even his beloved wife of 10 years, had disowned him. The gyropter glided over the barren mountains and valleys of the battlefield- no, graveyard was a better term. Bodies of all different races, human, gallevispian, and others that the man had never heard of, lie dead or as good as dead on the field, killed or worse.

The powers of the authority were defeated in the battle and left leaderless, but that didn't mean that they weren't still a serious threat. George was going to be there for as long as it would take. there was nothing for him at home to go back to, anyway.

George was at the end of his patrol, and was looking forward to a hot mug of chocolatl and his hard bunk, his new home. That was what he was looking forward to going back to now, not his home or his family, but his cause, what he had given his entire life to support.

He never saw the scout from the immense fleet of zeppelins rise up from a canyon behind him. His last thoughts were of his new home, and the cause he had given his life to protect. His gyropter fell from the sky in a burst of fire. The zeppelins continued on their journey, with an angelic escort. They were two hours away from the Basalt Fortress, and right on time. The operation was going just as planned.

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Enjoy? It's short, but a cliffhanger. Stay tuned, readers!