Disclaimer: I don't own GX.

Talk: Ja...haven't updated for a while so I thought I'd do as much as I could now that I have the chance.

Chapter Five

Running

Judai was awoken by a rough shaking. He slowly opened his chocolate-brown eyes and saw a familiar-looking man. "Prince, it's I, the man who spoke with you earlier, Cobra."

"Oh, you," Judai stood up, "What's up?"

"It's time to go," Cobra stated plainly, walking towards the door.

"Now? But-" Judai gazed at Jim and Johan.

"Yes, now."

"C'mon Sho," Judai woke his friend and they followed the man out of the shed and into the garden.

When Jim awoke, Judai and Sho were gone. "Johan, wake up! The prince is gone! And so is Sho! They'd never leave until we were up unless it was something REALLY important!"

Johan slowly opened his eyes, "So we do what?"

"Find 'em," Jim stepped out of the shed, wincing as his bandaged hand hit the wood. Johan stretched and got up to follow him, which was when he saw it…a card? Curious, he bent over and picked it up, it was dark, with a picture of a snake on it. The reptile's eyes seemed to gleam as he tucked the card into his pocket, and ran after Jim. "Where do you think they went?" Jim questioned as the blunette caught up with him.

"I don't know," Johan answered, but he had a feeling it was somewhere unpleasant, "I-I think they were forced."

Jim closed his un-covered eye, thinking deeply, "Well, Karen can follow their scent. We'll start there. I'm getting a really weird feeling about all this. My eye is…hurting, almost like when I saw HIM, that man." Johan nodded, and they watched Karen crawl along the ground, her snout twitching. She stopped at the patch of rosebushes where Johan and Judai had hid yesterday.

"Karen, they can't be in the rosebushes, they'd have jumped out and scared us by now," Johan patted the crocodile on the head and she growled at him, looking towards the rosebushes.

"But Karen's tracking is never wrong," Jim reasoned, walking into the rosebushes, "OW! These thorns are nasty!" Karen followed him, her scales too thick to be affected by little thorns, and Johan came after her, still a bit skeptical. Jim paused in the center of the roses, looking down at an un-natural piece of wood, "Johan, did you put this here?"

"No, I'm not allowed to decorate the gardens in any way, shape, or form," the blunette replied, probably quoting from one of his instructional lectures. Jim leaned over and pulled up on the wood, there was a groaning sound, but he could feel something resisting his pull. He turned and saw Johan standing beside him, "Hey, Johan, move a bit, okay?"

"Um," Johan was confused, but he obeyed, stepping away from his friend.

"Thanks," Jim tried pulling the wood again, and a trapdoor sprang open, "Whoah." Johan and Karen just stared until the boy gestured for them to come closer. Together, Johan and Karen walked over to their friend and all three peered down the hole.

"I-I never saw this before," Johan stammered, his eyes wide and awed.

"Someone didn't hide the handle this time, then," Jim pondered, "They must have been in a hurry."

"So you think that Judai-sama and Sho-san are down there?" Johan was getting a very unusual feeling from this passageway.

"One way to find out!" Jim said almost cheerfully, and leapt down into the hole, "C'mon, Johan, it's not that deep! I can still see you! And I can reach the door!"

"Okay," Johan truly trusted Jim, so he took a deep breath and leapt into the hole. At first, he couldn't see anything when he hit the bottom, but then his eyes began to adjust and he saw Jim a few feet ahead of him. Before moving on, the young servant pulled the door shut, almost reluctantly, for that strange feeling was growing stronger. The two boys walked in silence for a while, until they came to a fork in the passageway.

"I think we should split up, and if anything happens, we'll meet back here, okay?" Jim stared at the tunnels ahead.

"I guess," Johan actually didn't want to be alone in this place, he was scared. Jim nodded, and took the right passage, leaving the left to Johan. His legs a bit wobbly, the gardener walked forward.

Meanwhile, Cobra, Sho, and Judai were trekking through those same tunnels, actually just a bit ahead of the boys. "We must hurry!" Cobra hissed, his voice harsh.

"I can't believe I'm finally running away for real!" Judai's eyes were shining like two miniature suns.

"Hush!" the burly man warned, "The chamber ahead is dangerous." Little did Johan know, he was headed for that same chamber.

End Talk: oooooh! A cliffhanger thing! ^.^ Like I said a while ago, I wrote this about a year ago, so it may not be as good as some of my other stories! Still, I hope you're enjoying it!