The struggle with Roris wasn't exactly something Ross, Mike or Bien wanted to remember. Unfortunately for them, they didn't have any time to gather their thoughts.

Looking ahead, all of them saw the portal that Roris was about to escape through but was killed before he could make it through.

"Maverick must have gone through there," Ross said, pointing to the portal.

"You think we could still catch him if we go through?" Mike asked.

"There's no way we're going to catch him by standing here like this, is there?"

"Come on, guys," Bien said. "We're not done yet; we've still got a lot to do."

Ross nodded his head, and then he led his two friends into the shimmering white portal in front of them. Once again, all of them felt as if they were traveling at the speed of light through the long, white trail. When they were finally back on their two feet, the trio found themselves in a completely different society than before. The pollution and the loud machines were gone. There were still some large buildings, but the majority of them looked like they were made completely out of marble.

The sky was a pale shade of blue and there wasn't a trace of a cloud in the sky. The roads were made of rocks jumbled together, but it apparently got the job done. Lots of people were walking around wearing togas, whether they were men, women or children. The entire place seemed to be very crowded and busy with merchants trying to sell things, people looking around for something to do, and maybe a few people on special business.

"Where do you think we are?" Bien asked. His dark eyes were widening as he looked around, trying to pick up some clue in the environment where they were.

"I don't know," Ross said. "Think we might have traveled through time again?"

"It looks like it," Bien said. "I don't think this would look like some other place during that time period we were just in…"

Bien looked around and saw people getting by in chariots and there seemed to be several temples all over the place. In front of the temples were giant statues depicting the gods who he assumed the culture they were in worshipped.

Bien started laughing.

"Now I think I know where we are," he said with a smile on his face.

"Really?" Ross asked, starting to smile himself. "Where do you think we are?"

"Isn't is obvious?" Bien asked, a bit surprised that Ross didn't catch on. "We're in ancient Rome."

"Ancient Rome?" Ross asked, looking at everything around him and making sure Bien was right. The thought just sounded so farfetched.

"Ew! Gross!" Mike exclaimed, who hadn't been paying attention to a word any of them had said. "There are a bunch of old, fat, naked guys sitting in a hot tub together!"

"Yup, we're in Rome all right," Ross said.

"Mike doesn't know that's the way the upper class bathed at the time?" Bien asked, a little surprised at this as well.

"History really isn't Mike's favorite subject," Ross said very casually. He decided promptly afterwards they need to get back on topic. "Okay, so we're in ancient Rome, right? I'm talking, something like 200 B.C., right?"

"Correct," Bien said, smiling as if he were a professor and Ross was one of his pupils who had just answered a question right.

"Then that must mean Maverick is around here somewhere," Ross said glumly. He began passing his glances through the crowded streets, all the shopping plazas and arcades and seeing that there were more people out now than one could count.

"Finding him could prove to be difficult," Bien said with a touch of concern in his voice.

"My question is what the heck he wants here," Ross said. "I mean, what does he need here that has anything to do with the coal he swiped from the industrial revolution period just now?"

Bien was about to say something until Mike jumped in.

"Ross! Bien! There's Maverick right there!"

Mike pointed to a large crowd where people were suddenly screaming and running away. When the throng of terrified people cleared, Ross could clearly see Maverick was standing there. Right next to him was Kip, his other body guard. Right beside the two on the ground was the body of what looked like an ordinary citizen. He was in a pile of blood, and Maverick was holding something in his hand. The object Maverick was holding was a piece of paper rolled up. The paper also had blood smeared on it.

"Well, it seems as if trying to finish you off was too hard for Roris," Maverick said. "But that's all right. He can rest right outside a factory for all I care."

"Maverick," Ross yelled, taking a step forward, "What the heck are doing all this for? Why are you trying to kill Mike and me just because we broke a stick in the past? And why are you going to all these different places and getting random items, like coal or that piece of paper, anyway?"

"That is none of your concern," Maverick said coldly. "Kip, I think it's time you taught these three what happens when you mess with me!"

Maverick immediately started running away, but Kip stayed. His short, dark hair looked pretty ruffled, and his sneer showed saffron teeth. He reached into his cloak and pulled out a dagger with fresh blood on it.

That must have been what he used to kill that guy with, Ross deduced. The guy Maverick stole that rolled up sheet of paper from. I wonder what was on it…

"Roris may have let you go," Kip threatened as he pointed the dagger at Ross, Mike and Bien, "But it's about time you guys got out of Maverick's hair for good!"

"Gee, I thought mages like him were supposed to be friendly," Mike said with a sneer on his face.

"Not when you upset them!" Kip said with a violent look. "Prepare to meet your maker!"

Ross, Mike and Bien all looked very nervous as Kip started pointing his dagger right at them and started charging with the blade ready to impale one of them.

All three of them jumped out of the way at once, and soon, they had Kip surrounded. Bien pulled out his rapier and put the blade right under Kip's throat.

"You're nothing but talk," Bien mocked.

Kip shot his dagger up and knocked Bien's rapier out of the way. Unfortunately for Bien, the dagger also struck a thin spot on the rapier's blade, causing the blade to bend and be no longer useful.

"Ha!" Kip yelled as he shoved his way out of the circle Ross, Mike and Bien had formed around him. "You don't have your sword anymore. What are you gonna do now?"

But Bien didn't seem too scared. He reached around to the other side of his belt and pulled out his second rapier. "You might want to think twice before challenging me," he taunted.

Kip snarled, and then he started running down the streets and into a back path.

Bien growled when he saw Kip got away, but he quickly passed his only remaining rapier to Ross.

"Ross, you can run faster than I can. Take this and lead the way," Bien said, insisting that Ross take the sword.

"Are you sure that thing will help us get Kip at all?" Mike asked. "That blade seemed to snap pretty easily."

"It's part of the rapier's design," Bien said. "The rapier has a very thin blade and it's not uncommon at all for it to be snapped, bent or ruined when it strikes or is struck by something much heavier or harder."

"Guys, do we really have time for this?" Ross asked. "Kip's getting away, you know."

Ross turned around and started running down the path that Kip ran down, with Mike and Bien trying to keep up as well as they could.

Ross was much faster than Kip was, and that was soon realized. In just a few seconds, Ross could faintly see Kip running from them, but he was several yards ahead of them, and Ross was already getting tired after the rough journey that he was having so far.

But Kip seemed to be slowing down as well. When he saw how close behind Ross was, he started running even faster than he was before. He eventually made it back out into a public street with a giant temple right in front of him. Ross was soon out into the main road as well, the rapier that Bien gave him ready to strike.

Kip turned around and saw Ross running right at him, so he had to think fast. He turned around and started sprinting up the stairs to the temple, with Ross in close pursuit.

Before long, Ross and Kip were at the top of the very long marble stairs leading up into the temple, but the doors were shut tight, preventing anyone from going in. However, not many people were standing around. All the civilians were terrified of the fight that was going on in front of them and were running for their lives.

Ross took the rapier Bien gave him and started taking horizontal swings at Kip's head. Kip kept dodging them, but not by much. He frequently had to throw his body to the side so that Ross wouldn't hit him. With the rapier, Ross had the advantage of speed and length over Kip's dagger.

Kip finally had enough of it after a while and started running, but Ross wasn't about to give up so easily. He started running after Kip, and Kip knew that if he didn't act fast, he'd be dead.

Thinking quickly, Kip jumped on a marble statue of Mars (the Roman god that the temple was devoted to) which was adjacent to the set of marble stairs. He tried climbing up to the tip of it. Ross wouldn't be able to swing Bien's rapier so easily from there.

Ross, however, was not intimidated. He jumped on the statue and tried climbing up it as quickly as possible, and Kip was surprised with the boy's integrity.

Ross tried climbing up higher and higher, but now Kip had the height advantage. When Ross was still trying to climb up, Kip swiped his hand down and tried to cause Ross to lose his grip and fall to the pavement below.

Kip's plan helped a little, but it didn't accomplish its main goal. When Kip continued taking swipes and attempting to knock Ross off the statue, Ross temporarily lost his group and fumbled. The rapier fell out of his hand as a result and got knocked onto the ground. Ross, however, stayed. He was gripping the side with a very solid grasp, and Kip could see he wasn't about to let go.

Kip instead tried to position himself so that he could hold onto the statues head and be able to kick Ross instead of blindly swinging his fist.

Ross was clearly getting worn out. However, he had a little help from below in just moments.

"Ross!" a familiar voice called.

Ross looked to the ground and saw Mike and Bien had finally caught up to him and were staring at Ross as they saw him struggling to stay alive as he battled Kip on top of the statue.

"Bien, Ross looks like he's in trouble," Mike said uneasily. "Shouldn't we do something?"

"Yeah, but can we do? We won't be able to fight Kip on that statue…" Bien said. He started trailing off when he saw his rapier on the ground.

Thinking quickly, Bien ran over to the rapier and yelled, "Ross! Catch!"

Bien tossed the rapier up and Ross saw the thin blade spiraling in the air in front of him. In one defining moment, Ross grabbed the handle of the rapier and caught it.

Before Bien or Mike could celebrate Ross making the catch, Ross took the rapier and slashed Kip across the stomach with it.

Kip sounded like he just choked on something. After getting the wound, he just stared in disbelief at Ross. For several seconds, there was dead silence. Blood was now pouring from Kip's stomach like a small, red waterfall, leaving a crimson patch on his clothes.

Slowly, Kip lost his grip of holding onto the statue. He started falling backwards, and in only a few seconds, his grip on the statue was completely gone. Kip fell off the statue and landed back flat on the marble below. His eyes were wide and he showed no signs of life. He was obviously dead.

Breathing heavily, Ross slowly made his way down the statue. When he made it all the way down, he walked over to his two friends. Looking a bit guilty, he handed back Bien's rapier, stained with red.

"I can't believe I had to do that," Ross said. "I never wanted to kill him. I don't even know what drove me to do it. I know I don't have the guts to do that."

"Maybe it was because your life was in danger?" Mike suggested.

"That's probably it," Bien said.

Ross was still breathing heavy. He was looking everywhere else except at Mike and Bien. He looked like a complete mess and looked like he had just gone through something very demanding and hard.

"Well, at least Maverick's two bodyguards are out of the way now," Mike said, trying his best to sound optimistic. "Maybe we can figure out what he was doing now."

"That's right," Bien said. "Now that those two are no longer in our hair, Maverick is completely defenseless. All we have to do now is find him."

"That might be hard," Ross said coldly. "Maybe he's already gone through another portal with whatever he came here to get."

"Oh yeah," Mike said. "If he's gone now, then we're screwed. What the heck did he want that paper for anyway?"

"Who knows?" Bien asked.

"Yeah, that paper he stole is thousands of years old," Ross mumbled. "What was on it that could help him in any way with whatever his plan is?"

"You think he has a plan?" Mike asked.

"Mike, what guy goes to the past and gets things like coal or papers without good reason to?" Ross asked. "He's gotta have something up his sleeve. We should figure out what it is before it's too late."

Bien smiled. "I like the sounds of this. Three friends going on an adventure. Is that what's happening here?"

"Yeah," Ross said softly. "Wow. All this sprouted from trying to find a way to close up the gate between my time and Maverick's…"