Stryker sharpened the edge of his spear-tipped tail against the stone floor as he waited in front of Nevarr's throne.

He was still seething.

His speared tail tapped rhythmically against the floor as the seconds went by. The minutes. The hour. The Diamond Snake arose in a irritated anger.

"Dammit, where is he?" Stryker hissed sharply, banging his tail on the ground.

"You know he's probably dead, right?" a voice called out from below. "You're telling me my friends are going to come here with the guitars and then not make getting me out their immediate main priority? Regardless of Nevarr planning to kill them anyways, which they don't even really know? Yeah, I call bull."

Stryker glared down at the human held in the prison below, waving off her babbling.

"I'd rather you not speak right now. I'm not in the mood for your banter."

"My friends did something. And I don't know what they did, but they did it. And you may not have much time before they come back. And you'll be screwed, too. All for a leader you don't even like." Kara added, leaning her head as far as she could out of the bars.

Stryker's eyes twitched and he lunged off the high platform, landing down in front of Kara's confines. He gave his loudest hiss to her and slammed his tail hard enough to slightly dent the metal bars.

"Shut. UP! I swear to the world, if you don't stop talking I will run you through!" Stryker boomed, lifting his tail and bringing the sharp tip of the spear connected to it up to Kara's chest.

Kara took a half-step back, but decided at the last moment to stay put. She laughed softly and looked up at the visibly irate Diamond Snake, her glaring growing softer in it's intensity.

"Stryker...Nevarr doesn't give a single damn about you or his his people, and I know you can see that. When he gets his tail whooped, you're gonna wish you did something about him earlier. You don't need to obey his abusive rules and behavior anymore! You could all revolt with u-"

Kara instinctively stopped her speech as Stryker slammed his tail against the bars again.

"ENOUGH!" Stryker shouted from the top of his lungs, effectively growing a crowd of Diamond Cutters from above. "You don't know anything!"

This time, Kara stood her ground, leaning even closer.

"I DO know. He's clearly indoctrinated all of you to think that feelings are something to strip from your minds. He's making you all into heartless drones! All of these innocent mutes and maybe even other humans that you just kidnap and bring in...and for what, heartless entertainment? It is not too late for you or the rest of your people, Stryker..."

Kara breathed in and looked back up to him.

"Cause' I see it. I know..." Kara gripped the bars that held her, putting her face closer again. "You don't need to be afraid of emotion. And you don't need to be afraid of the truth. My friend with the sword? Used to be the same way."

Stryker remained silent, staring at her with unmoving eyes.

"Give yourself a chance, man. I've seen people come back from worse places." Kara finished leaning off the bars and sitting back down on the cold, stone floor.

Still silent, he turned slightly away from the human, just in time to hear something in the near distance.

Stryker maneuvered his body back up to the throne floor and peered up the entry way to find one of his fellow Diamond Cutters rushing in.

The snake stopped exhausted, looking up to Stryker with wide eyes.

"It's Nevarr, Stryker! He's been seriously wounded! Our group is just behind us!" the subordinate told him, beckoning him to follow.

Stryker slowly slid out of the underground tunnel to find Nevarr and the fewer amount of Diamond Cutters than he had left with flanking him. The gurgles through his mouth that was struck through and sealed shut by the sword's blade were unintelligible, but his panicked and dilated eye slits were all the spear-tipped snake needed to see.

"I take it the mission was unsuccessful?" Stryker jested through his agitation.

Nevarr narrowed his eyes through the pain and attempted to raise his spiked tail, but was stopped by a coming chorus of footsteps and noises. The Diamond Cutter leader cursed and slammed his spiked tail beside Stryker, which he took as presumably ordering him to gather the rest of their troops from the inside. An order give too late for his second-in-command to respond to.

The rumbling of the approaching Timbercats and Umlaut Snäkes broke Stryker's sights off of Nevarr's angered form. A gray Timbercat unmounted the large mute flea and brandished his axe at Stryker.

"If you wish not to meet the same fate as your rookies back at Cactus Town, I'd suggest you move out of the way and hand over the human, spear-tail!" Yumyan threatened as the rest of the rebellion hissed and shouted from behind him.

Knox, Lute and Piercer came in just behind and joined the riled up group mixture of snakes and cats.

Stryker paid no heed to the rallying of mutes behind his clan.

He paid no heed to Knox's yelling of his human friend's safe return.

He opted to continue his stare into the vulnerable Nevarr's eyes. Angrily, Nevarr glanced behind him at the vengeful mutes behind him, his remaining Diamond Back lackeys that were holding them back the only thing between him and certain death. He turned back towards Stryker with venomous eyes, and slammed his spiked tail even closer to Stryker, the sharp protruding iron needles grazing him. At this point, all of the Diamond Cutters that were still in their hideout emerged behind Stryker, confused at the turn of events.

Stryker made his decision.

Approaching the injured leader of his, Stryker eyed all of the Diamond Cutters around him. Then he put his eyes back on Nevarr, his eyes boring through his leader like daggers. Nevarr had once again put himself first, hiding behind the ones that followed him blindly. Including Stryker himself.

"You're a leader no more." Stryker told Nevarr, the simply stated words contrasting his inner rage.

"In fact, by observation of it's highest, honorable definition you...never were." Stryker finished.

Before anyone could blink, Stryker reared his tail back and struck his spear-tipped tail straight through Nevarr's neck. The Diamond Cutters all watched in shock as their leader let out one last straining hiss before the speared tail pulled out, leaving Nevarr to collapse and bleed out in front of everyone.

Everyone went quiet.

"Diamond Cutters. My brothers. My sisters..." Stryker began, lashing out his tail to clear some of the blood away. "Nevarr was no leader. He was no savior. Nevarr was a tyrant, abusive to both his power and his people. I know you all know it, too."

Stryker looked past the other mutes present and at the various Diamond Cutters around him.

" And he has fallen to my blade because of it."

Stryker aimed his sights towards Yumyan and Camille, who were still on edge, waiting for the unexpected to happen once again.

"That strike wasn't just my strike. It was all of ours. It was the pent up frustration of my fellow Diamond Cutters...and it was for all of you." Stryker looked around at all of the Timbercats and Umlaut Snäkes, eventually landing on Knox and Lute.

"Human. Step forward." Stryker told Knox directly.

Looking back at his comrades, Knox gave his unsure allies a nod, walking up and giving a long look at Nevarr's deceased form ahead of standing before Stryker. They both gave each other long looks before, Stryker pointed at Nevarr's corpse.

"Your blade, human. I'd say you've earned it back more than you could ever think." Stryker told him as his tail wrapped around the sword's hilt and pulled it out of Nevarr's jaw. The human slowly stretched out his hand and wrapped it around the katana's handle.

"Thank you." Knox told the snake.

Stryker nodded. "Now. He looked up towards the group of mutes. "There will be no more altercations. No more tension between us. No more division. The reward colosseum is dead along with this retched excuse for a leader, and we will free everyone held captive. I claim that as your new leader, this be so. Does anyone have an objection to any of this? Speak your peace now and only now if you do." Stryker looked about at his clan members.

He was met with silence. And after waiting awhile longer, even more silence.

"Good. You are all my equals, fellow Diamond Cutters. I will treat you as such. We will make sure that no more of my brethren and sistren suffer a needless fate as Nevarr casted upon those not with us here. Now, humans...I believe it's long due that you see to your friend."

Kara waited in anticipation after all of the commotion from outside of the cave drew closer. Any excess worries melted away the moment she heard a familiar voice.

"Kara?"

Her heart pumped faster. Kara gripped the bars tighter as the footsteps got closer. And her heart felt like it stopped the moment Stryker came into clear view. The Diamond Snake looked at her directly as he approached with the keys to her prison. They gave a entirely different feeling than when she last looked into them. This time it was surely that of sorrow and regret...but a sense of slight peace.

"You're free to go, human. Nevarr is dead." Stryker told her.

Kara didn't get the chance to say anything to the sudden revelation as Knox and Lute came running towards her from nearby. She almost lost her balance as Lute crashed into her, giving her a biggest hug he's ever given her.

"My god, I honestly never thought we'd see you again!" Lute told her, his eyes begging watering up.

"I told you both; I knew you were going to figure something out." Kara replied back, patting Lute's back as he threatened to suffocate her as his hold on her became a bit too tight. "You c-can let go now, Lute."

"Right...right."

Knox approached wordlessly, repeating the same gesture Lute gave her.

"Right till the end, Kara." he told her. "And we're finally here."

Kara put a hand on his shoulder. "Knew you guys could do it."

It was only then that Kara caught eyes with a black rat mute, who along with a large cat in a flannel shirt held himself back from the conversation.

"Made friends along the way?" Kara quipped. interested in the newcomers.

"Oh right!" Lute piped up. He made way over to them and introduced. "This is Piercer, the Archerat who nearly killed us for food, but we made a deal with to help us!"

Piercer twitched his nose and folded his arms. "Could've elaborated a little more. It's been a long week for me."

"Err, sorry...and this is the leader of the Timbercats, Yumyan Hammerpaw, who is actually one of the main reasons we're even getting you out of here."

Yumyan scratched his fur with his axe, eyes shut in modesty. "Eh, well, I had help of course."

Kara walked up to Piercer, shaking his hand and gave Yumyan a big hug, the cat leader returning the favor.

"It's nice to meet you all. Seriously. I'm super grateful. I can't even express how grateful I am...I guess the best I can do right now is not die the second I step outside, ha ha."

Stryker approached the other prison cells and released the imprisoned mutes one by one. He found it much harder to look in any of his former prisoners' eyes than it ever was to look into his former leader Nevarr's. All of the pain, suffering and mistreatment built up by Nevarr now fell on his scales. He was a willing participant, regardless of the circumstances. This was his cross to bear.

The moment the armadillo mute was released, he almost immediately met eyes with Knox and Lute. He approached and shook both of their hands after realizing who they were.

"What strange coincidence!" the armadillo mute said as Knox and Lute caught on to his appearance. "The name's Marrram, and you've already saved my life once before."

"You're the mute we helped from that human group...the ones who caught you for running in on their supplies, am I right? Good to see your still in one piece!" Lute said happily.

It was then that Kara gave her dues. "So, I finally get to see the most wondrous next door cell mate after all." she joked, hugging Marrram. "I'm...I'm so sorry for what happened to your..."

"I just want to get out of here. That's all I want." Marrram replied, his brief joyous mood gone and eyes low.

"Kara."

Kara turned back towards Knox and found him with a necklace in his hand as he held it out to her. A green, hexagon-shaped crystal necklace with flower patterns shone in the light of the brightly lit cavern. Her eyes lit up.

Amanda's necklace. Her sister's necklace.

"Let's get back soon, huh?" Knox told Kara, smiling as she hugged him again.

Nevarr came across the cell of the same bunny he had captured just earlier in the morning, and no matter how hard it was to him, he continued to meet her gaze as she finished her emotional chastising.

"...I'll never forgive you." the bunny finished as her tearful eyes left his and she quickly made way for the underground's exit.

Stryker's eyes never left the spot the bunny once was.

But he did flinch slightly as something laid upon the side of his long form. Stryker's vision moved slightly to find that it was Kara.

"You can never make up for what damage you've caused...but you can always start over to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else. Thank you for coming to. What comes next is never easy...but it's not supposed to be. Start over, Stryker." Kara told him as she gave him a weak smile.

Stryker gave her an extended look before slowly nodding to her words.

"I will."