Kline had been defeated and was now lying dead in a hospital room somewhere locked vast within Mike's past. But that was no longer the concern, for now, Ross had some problems of his own that he had to deal with.

After being forced through the portal Maverick created that led him to his past, Ross could once again clearly see what was in front of him.

Ross was staring at the wide open fields on his old home in Kansas. There was absolutely no signs of life anywhere in sight. But everything else remained the same. The dry, yellow glass went all the way up past his kneecaps, but he didn't feel the blades of grass rubbing up against him due to the fact he was wearing long pants.

The sky was a deep blue that it was almost enchanting. There was not a single cloud in the sky, and the sun was shining bright down.

Ross was confused with why nothing was happening. He started scratching his head in confusion, making his neat black hair look messier. His hazel green eyes scanned the empty fields in front of him.

Then, out of nowhere, a giant white portal appeared in front of him. It appeared so suddenly that it startled Ross and made the fifteen-year old jump with surprise.

The portal stuck out of the otherwise perfect looking scenery, almost like Ross was staring at a painting of the field he was standing in and the white portal was a patch of white canvas that the artist had neglected to finish painting.

Out of the portal came Sandra, giving Ross her most vengeful look yet. Her long blonde hair blew softly as she stepped out of the portal. It glistened in the sunlight, making it almost look beautiful. But her face was still pale and she still kept the serious expression about her that she possessed when she and Ross had first met. In her hand was a giant wooden staff. It was made of solid wood that was clearly varnished and polished, and it was clear it was used for beating. At the bottom of the handle was the same symbol that was on the necklace Maverick was wearing and the one Ross was mysteriously wearing when he had woken up a few mornings ago.

"Maverick has given me orders to dispatch you," Sandra threatened as she held up the rod and got ready to strike with it. "And I always follow through with my orders."

"I don't want to have to fight you," Ross said. His sweaty hand gripped the long, wooden stick that he had taken before he jumped into the portal.

"I wouldn't want to have to fight me either," Sandra said menacingly as a cocky smirk spread across her pale lips.

Without another word, Sandra leapt at Ross with the rod in her hand and tried bashing him over the side of the head with it.

Ross jumped out of the way just in time, but his landing wasn't so graceful. He landed hard on the ground and on top of his wooden stick, but he was back up again and wasn't fooling around anymore.

"Bien…" Ross mumbled to himself as he stared at Sandra with determination and the will to survive. "I hope your skills with the rapier can at least hold true for this piece of wood I got."

Ross then started charging Sandra and had his long wooden pole ready to attack. He gripped it with both of his hands, trying to get the maximum strength and control over it.

In just a matter of moments, Ross and Sandra were dueling with their two wooden weapons, and neither one of them showed any sign of weakening.

The sound of the wood banging against the other wooden weapon was heard and created loud cracking echoes that ripped through the normally quiet field that they were battling in.

Ross had spent the first ten and a half years of his life on this field, taking in its beauty and enjoying it. Never did he once think that it would be the stage for a battle for his life over five years down the road.

When it came to age, Sandra looked like she held at least a ten year advantage over Ross, but it didn't mean Ross wasn't putting up a good fight against her. In fact, she seemed to have greatly underestimated the teenager.

After the two of them did nothing but bash their wooden weapons together as they hoped to strike a painful blow on the other, both of them were beginning to show visible signs of exhaustion.

Ross tried using a move Bien had taught him when they were fencing by trying to attack the legs, therefore crippling the opponent and being able to strike a fatal blow on them.

Ross tried this strategy by acting like he was running in a certain direction, therefore causing Sandra to look in the direction she thought he was running. But the instant Sandra turned away, Ross ducked and started hiding inside the tall grass. Despite the fact he was a little tall, he was still able to conceal himself perfectly within the yellow field.

Now, the fifteen year old was crawling through the grass and trying to move as slow as possible so Sandra would not be able to find him in the tall stretching fields. Ross had to move fast enough that he could find Sandra's legs and do something to cripple them.

Finally, after scurrying through the grass for a long time, Ross saw Sandra's legs as she trotted through the field slowly, looking for him. Ross dropped his stick to his side and with both of his hands, grabbed Sandra's ankle. He pulled her leg towards her, causing her to fall to the ground.

Unprepared, Sandra lost her balance as Ross pulled her leg towards him and fell to the ground. She landed on her back with a hard thud and probably fractured a few bones from the impact.

Ross took this opportunity to strike the winning blow. He got up from the grass and immediately located Sandra as she was lying on the ground in pain after just being pulled down. Ross picked up the long, wooden stick that he brought with him to fight and gripped it.

When Sandra had come to her senses, she looked up and saw Ross ready to deliver a blow to the side of her head with the wooden stick. She had no time to react.

Ross took the stick and slammed it right into her forehead. The blow was so solid it left a thin trail of blood trickling from the point of impact on Sandra's head. Her eyes were wide open, but showed no sign of life.

Breathing heavily, Ross stared at Sandra's lifeless body. He couldn't believe that he had just battled and won. The morality in him told him that he had done the wrong thing.

Ross dropped his stick and knelt down on the ground beside Sandra, the long grass almost going up to his chin. He never ceased staring at her.

"I'm a…murderer…"Ross said in disbelief. He was so furious with himself that the only way he won the battle was by taking a life.

"It's okay…" Ross tried telling himself. "It was out of self defense. She was trying to kill me. I had every right defending myself. That was what had to be done."

As Ross continued trying to justify his actions in his mind, he noticed something glimmering on Sandra's wrists. Curious, he reached down and grabbed whatever was sparkling.

Ross was holding, in his hands, bracelets that looked exactly identical to the ones that Kline was wearing when Mike battled him in the hospital. Sandra had been wearing them when she was fighting, and it seemed to give her a bit of advantage. What was their real purpose?

Not knowing what else to do, or thinking he could possibly obtain a clue, Ross put the bracelets that Sandra was wearing on.

In a moment, the bright lights started swarming around Ross that had appeared around Mike after he had taken the bracelets Kline was wearing.

The bright lights enveloped Ross and started taking him away to some unknown place. When the lights cleared, he found himself in a place that he did not know.

The weather was surprisingly cold-much different than it was in Kansas. He was standing by some stream that had audible sounds of flowing, clear water. The grass was so much shorter, with blades barely half an inch high.

Ross could see his breath in front of him as he breathed, so the temperature must have been colder. It didn't take long to realize where he was.

"Ross!" called a familiar voice from behind him.

Ross got excited with hearing the cry of his name. He turned around, starting to smile, and standing several feet away from him was Mike. Mike looked pretty excited to see his friend. Moments later, he started running towards Ross.

"Mike, you're not gonna believe this," Ross started. "That Sandra woman just tried fighting me, and I was suddenly back in the fields outside my home in Kansas. I found enough nerve in me to fight her, and somehow I won."

"Really?" Mike asked. "That's weird. The portal I went through took me back to the hospital room that I was being treated for my deadly mosquito illness in. Except I was fighting that Kline guy, and I won."

"You did?" Ross asked, his smile growing wider. "Awesome! We rule!"

The two friends gave each other a high five, but then a bigger question loomed over them.

"Wait," Ross suddenly said. "Then how did both of us get back here? Killing Kline and Sandra couldn't have had anything to do with it…"

"I don't know," Mike admitted. "I got back by putting these on. I stole them from Kline after I fought him."

Mike put out his hands and showed Ross his wrists. Indeed, Mike was still wearing the two heavy, bright gold covered bracelets on his hands. The dark blue jewel in the center of both of them reflected the sunlight.

"Weird," Ross said softly. "Because after I beat Sandra, I put them on, and they took me back here."

"So…these things can take us through time?" Mike asked excitedly.

"I wouldn't be too sure of that," Ross said. "We're both wearing them now, and nothing is happening. And neither of us knew that these things would have some sort of time-traveling power, so we couldn't have done anything to trigger it."

"Maybe it just brought us back to where we belong?" Mike asked.

"There's got to be more to it than that," Ross said as he continued looking at the priceless and powerful metal on his hands. But after really analyzing what Mike said, Ross perked up.

"Wait-what do you mean 'where we belong'?"

"Well duh, Ross!" Mike said. "Don't you recognize this place. We're home. It's over."

"Home?" Ross asked. He had a feeling he was back and walking down the brook that he and Mike had been walking near before their entire journey started, but for some reason, he had trouble believing the last part.

"Yeah," Mike said. "Come on, we've beaten Maverick's two body guards. That should make him scared of us and leave us alone."

"Maverick…" Ross said. "You really think he's going to just forget about this?"

"Ross, he doesn't even know where we come from, and there's no time gate or anything around here that can take him back to us. You gotta stop worrying."

Ross sighed. "All right. Anyway, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty relieved that whole thing is over."

"Yeah."

And so the two went home, but not without forgetting the events that just happened to them. Both of them had been victorious in saving themselves in the past, which was the reason they still existed. And now that they were back to where they were before, it looked like things would be back to normal in no time.

Not quite.

A few days after Ross and Mike got back from the past, they were hanging out at Ross's house again. Ross was doing some of his homework while Mike was on Ross's computer, surfing the web.

It was an overcast day. There was practically no sunlight, making the March weather even colder than normal. The trees still had no leaves on them, but there wasn't much wind around. Both kids had grown used to the cold weather, so they weren't letting it bother them.

"Hey, Ross," Mike said as he typed on the computer, "can we do something?"

Ross let out an exasperated sigh. He dropped his pencil on top of his homework and plopped all his books on the floor. He had been through this routine before with Mike. Whenever Mike asked, "can we do something" meant that Mike was bored and he wanted Ross to come up with the idea of something fun to do to pass the time. And that often got on Ross's nerves.

"Um…let's see," Ross said, trying not to show how frustrated he was getting. He looked down at the dark blue carpet of his room. "We could play some video games, I guess."

"Nah," Mike said. "I'd rather do something active."

Ross sighed annoyed again, but tried not to let it get to him. "All right. Why don't we go outside, and we'll figure something out then?"

Mike just shrugged and got up from the computer chair. Both boys went outside. While it was still cold out, the two were perfectly fine wearing sweaters, jeans and sneakers. Without knowing where they were going, both of them started walking down the stream again as they pondered something to do.

Without warning, a loud cry came up out of nowhere and made both kids jump. "There you are!"

Ross and Mike turned around and saw a man who looked like he was in his late fifties. He was wearing clothes similar to the kind Sandra and Kline were wearing, and he looked like he was still a good fighter, even though he was in his old age.

"Uh…can I help you?" Ross asked, confused at what the heck the person wanted.

"Heh heh heh heh," snickered the man, a small wind drifting through his graying hair. His blue eyes matched the icy cold of the air around him. "Maverick is going to make me one of his top bodyguards after I'm through with you!"

"Maverick?" Ross asked.

"Sheesh, what does that old guy have anything against us, anyway? All we did was break a stick," Mike complained.

"You interfered with the past!" the man hissed. "And for that, Maverick has ordered me to kill you!"

Ross and Mike looked very uneasy. Not from terror, but about the awkwardness of the whole situation. There they were: two regular teenagers trying to find something to do, and an older man from the past pops up out of nowhere and threatens to kill them because they broke a stick in the past. That was more than enough for Ross and Mike to consider weird.

"Listen," Mike said, not thinking about what he was about to say. That was a bad habit of his: speaking before he thought things through. "We've already fought some of the bodyguards that guy has, and we beat the living heck out of 'em. You don't want to have to fight us."

The man just laughed and started to approach them. "You have it backwards, kid. It's you who doesn't want to have to fight me."

"Wanna bet?" Mike asked, putting his fists up like he was about to engage in a street fight.

"Enough of this," Ross said. He walked over to the guy and conjured up every single bit of upper body strength he had. Using that strength, he pushed the guy into the stream behind them.

The man started screaming in rage as the stream started carrying him away to who-knows-where. Ross and Mike stared as they watched him float downwards more and more.

"He'll be all right," Ross promised, looking at his friend. "But sheesh, that guy was annoying."

"Tell me about it," Mike said. "But how do you think he got here anyway?"

"I don't know," Ross said. "He didn't make a flashy entrance through a portal or anything like that."

Both kids started trying to think things through until Ross finally came up with an idea.

"Hey, remember how we first got transported to the past? It was through that cave by the stream. I was looking at some of the drawings on the wall, and when I touched a certain part, it warped both of us there."

"Hmmmm," Mike said. "You think that cave itself could be a gate to the past?"

"I'm not sure," Ross said. "But I think it's the best bet we got right now."

Ross and Mike started walking towards the cave. They looked into the dark, threatening inside of it. It wasn't so well illuminated like last time, because the sun was out this time. But deeper in the cave was a glowing white light that looked exactly the same color as the ones that Kline and Sandra created.

"That's it, all right," Ross said in a surprisingly neutral tone. "That's where the guy came from. I'll bet that if we were to go into that, we'd wind up back in that place again with that Maverick guy."

"Well, let's go," Mike said.

"What?" Ross asked, obviously surprised and his face clearly expressing it. "What for?"

"Come on, Ross," Mike encouraged, "do you want pests like that guy just now showing up and insisting you fight them? Sooner or later, we're going to make a run-in with a guy carrying a giant sword or a mace. We gotta go back there and straighten things out with that Maverick guy now."

Ross covered his face with his hand, and he could feel his hand's icy coldness. He really didn't want to go back.

"Mike, do we have to?"

"Come on, Ross, what choice do we have?"

"All right, fine," Ross said. "We'll go back."

"Yes! Another adventure!" Mike said. Saying this, he stood straight up and ran right towards Ross's house.

"Wait a minute!" Ross yelled, stopping Mike. "You just said you wanted to go through that portal and start another adventure. Now you're running back to my house?"

"Yeah."

"What for?"

"Well, I gotta get my iPod."

Ross's expression turned to one of frustration. "We're going back to the eighteenth century. What the heck do you need an iPod for?"

"Hey, if I go one day without listening to U2 or Metallica, I'll lose my mind," Mike said, pulling that excuse right out of his head.

That wasn't a problem the FIRST time we went to the past, Ross thought coldly to himself.