AN: I'm going to do this chaper in third person, let me know if you prefer it this way.

Disclaimer: I own nothing in relation to The Underland Chronicles.

School was Gregor's least favorite part of the day. He didn't think it was boring, he just thought it was unnecessary. Honing his reflexes and improving his body seemed for more important to his future than solving for "y". Still he almost never missed school, it was a relatively small price to pay to keep his mother happy. He would be leaving in a few years and in the meantime he wanted her to be upset as little as possible.

After his grandmother had passed, two years ago, his father had a small relapse but quickly recovered. He hadn't had any serious health problems since, and Grace was extremely grateful for that, he seemed to be in the clear. Gregor fervently hoped that was true, it would break his heart if his father relapsed when he left.

Gregor only had a few hours until he could go home and get back to training, and since it was Friday, it would be very intense. He was looking forward to it. Turning his attention back to his class, he noticed Lauren, one of the school's cheerleaders, staring at him. He ignored her gaze and pretended to take notes, it wasn't that she wasn't pretty, in fact she was very attractive. She was a little over five and a half feet tall with a lean athletic build, her brunette hair fell in thick waves to the middle of her back, and she had a fair complexion with deep green eyes. She was also very smart and surprisingly kind, but Gregor didn't care, because his heart belonged to someone else. He knew, because of Vikus, that Luxa had matured, but that she was still the same determined, loyal, intelligent, fierce girl that he fell in love with. He couldn't wait to see her again. He wondered if she liked the picture he had given Ripred's mice, Ripred had known of Gregor's plan to return for a long time now, but Vikus convinced him to keep it a secret from Luxa, not that he needed much convincing.

Gregor had grown in the last three years, he was almost six feet tall now and he was pretty sure he wasn't done growing. All of his exercise was also clearly paying off, his body was still developing, but he had a very strong build. Again he thought of Luxa, and wondered how much she had grown, how much she had changed. He was pulled from his reverie when the bell signifying the end of the class rang. He had grabbed his notebook and was almost out of the room when Lauren called out to him.

"Gregor, wait up. How are you doing today?" She had a bright smile on her face.

He didn't really feel like talking, but Lauren was a nice girl so he wasn't going to be rude and ignore her. "I'm alright Lauren, how are you?"

She smiled wider when I said her name. "I'm okay. So, was wondering what you were planning on doing after school today? I heard there's supposed to be a pretty big rainstorm tonight."

It was Gregor's turn to smile, he knew about the rainstorm and couldn't wait for it to hit. "Yeah, I know, I'm just going to work out I guess. I really like exercising in the rain, it's so energizing, I feel like I could go for hours."

"Oh. Well, do you think you can take a night off tonight?" She sounded really hopeful but her smile had started to falter.

"Why? If you're worried about me being struck by lightning my house has a lightning rod built into it, so I don't have to worry about that?" I decided to play ignorant.

She looked confused and a little worried now. "Wait, you're going to exercise outside? In a rainstorm? What if you get sick?"

"I've done it before and I haven't gotten sick. Besides it's not like I can properly workout inside, and like I said, I feel like the rain gives me more energy." The last part wasn't actually true, he just really liked to do the rain training so he pushed himself harder, it was one of the most fun and easiest ways to mark his progress. "Why did you want me to take the day off?"

"Oh, you see... I was sort of wondering if you wanted to go to the movies with me tonight." She was sporting a pretty heavy blush by the time she had finished speaking.

Gregor felt bad for having to her down, but it's not like he had been leading her on or anything. "Lauren, I'm not really interested in dating anyone. I'm sorry if I came across that way, but I really want to focus on my education right now. I'll completely understand if you're upset with me."

"No, it's okay. I'll see you later Gregor." She walked away quickly with her head held low.

Gregor sighed, he hoped she would be able to bounce back quickly. On his way to his next class, he wondered if he would have to do that again before he went back to the Underland, he hoped not. Before he made it to the classroom, he heard someone behind him quickly making their way in his direction. The sound ambient sound of the hallway and the person's heavy footfalls let Gregor's mind construct an ever progressing image. A large male was aggressively pushing his way through the hall, directly towards Gregor. Judging from his size and taking into consideration what had just transpired with Lauren, it was a pretty safe bet that it was Shawn, Lauren's older brother. Gregor kept walking towards his next class, he was prepared to react to an attack from behind, though he gave no outward signs that he knew what was happening.

Shawn's deep voice rang out so loudly that the image was clearer than Gregor would have been able to see if he was looking right at the larger teen. He could see the small patch of hair on the back of Shawn's head standing apart from the rest, I could see his clenched fists, I also saw the pencils and erasers sitting in the bottom of an open locker near the other end of the hallway. "GREGOR! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY SISTER?" He stopped several feet behind Gregor.

Turning around, Gregor calmly responded, hoping that Shawn would believe him. "I didn't do anything to her. She asked me if I wanted to go see a movie with her, and I told her that I'm not interested in dating anyone, I didn't mean to upset her."

"Well you did. You made her cry, so I'm going to do the same to you. I'll be waiting for you after school, punk." With that he turned around and stormed away.

Gregor didn't the word punk, he wasn't sure why, it just rubbed him the wrong way. He only knew a few people who used it as an insult, and this was the first time it had been directed at him. He didn't like it one bit. He spent the first few minutes of his next class calming down, he couldn't afford to be anything but calm if he had to fight, otherwise there was a very large chance he could go too far and kill Shawn. He hope it was the combination of a long week, having to turn Lauren down, and being confronted that got him so worked up, and not just one word. That would make him feel like all the hard work he had put into controlling his emotions was useless.

School was finally out, and Gregor was wondering where Shawn would be waiting. The best place would be on the road leading behind the school since that was the way Gregor had to go to get home. This would be the fourth time Gregor had been in a fight since moving here. While he hadn't sought out any fights, he wasn't opposed to participating in them. He liked getting more experience under his belt, and if he was being honest, he liked being able to let off a little steam that way. He was right, Shawn was standing with a few of his friends facing Gregor.

Shawn was smirking arrogantly at Gregor, he thought he had every right to be confident. He was taller than Gregor, he was much more muscular, he was two years older, he believed he was more skilled when it came to fighting. Gregor knew the fight would be over in seconds.

Shawn spoke when Gregor was a few feet away from him. "Look, the little bastard actually showed up. Saved me the trouble of hunting you down tomorrow. I've been looking forward to this since the first day I saw you, you looked so smug, looking down on us just because you used to live in New York. Well now I get to put you in your place."

One of the things Gregor missed about the Underland was the fact that no one really talked before they fought, except Ripred of course. Shawn raised his fists in front of his face like a boxer, then slowly advanced towards him.

Gregor's POV

I spread my feet and raised my arms, I kept my hands open. My vision had splintered the moment he raised his hands, and I saw every weak point on the front of his body, all of the holes in his form. I could have taken the first move and ended the fight, but I generally preferred reacting over acting.

He threw a jab with his left hand. It might as well have been in slow motion, I decided to teach him a little lesson. When his fist had almost reached me, I leaned inside his swing, and lashed out with blindingly fast punch to the top of his bicep. He grunted in pain and quickly moved away from me. He shook his arm a few times, glaring at me all the while. A few moments later he resumed his previous stance and came close once again. This time he jabbed with his right hand, but I could tell from the motion it was a feint. When his wide left hook was about a foot away I grabbed his left wrist and yanked his arm toward me, pulling him off balance, then I punched him in the sternum with my left hand. I stood there for a moment, my right hand still holding his wrist and my left firmly planted against his chest. When I felt his body start to sag against me I released his arm and softly pushed him away, he immediately collapsed and curled into the fetal position. I heard him trying to ease air into his aching chest, I knew that he would be in pain all weekend.

I became aware of someone behind me, quickly turning my head, I saw one of his friends' fist inches from my face. Reacting as fast as I could, I swung my right elbow behind me to deflect his fist while simultaneously thrusting my right leg out to kick him in the chest. As soon as my foot made contact, I quickly placed it back on the floor and looked around me to see if anyone else was going to attack me. When nobody moved I glanced down at Shawn, then turned and headed home. After I was off of school grounds, I started running. I wasn't running out of fear, it was simply how I got home, I lived two miles away from the school and since both of my parents worked I didn't have a ride. I liked running anyways, it helped me relax and helped me stay fit.

Third Person

Gregor made it home in less than ten minutes, breathing heavier than normal, but by no means winded. He walked to the kitchen and made himself a turkey sandwich, while he was eating it he stared at the black clouds that were almost above his house. He could see the falling rain, like a curtain being pulled towards him. He could feel his anticipation building, the rain would probably hit his house in less than an hour. He decided to start his training now, Lizzie was in her room so he decided to let her know he was starting now. He knocked on her door and waited for her to respond.

"Gregor?" She was pretty sure it was him, Boots usually walked right in.

"Yeah, I'm going start exercising and I was wondering if you wanted to help me with the rock training." Lizzie helped with a lot of Gregor's training and this was her favorite exercise by far.

"Sure, just give me a few minutes to finish my math homework. Maybe you should stretch while you wait."

He walked outside and did as she suggested, he focused mostly on stretching his legs and back. Lizzie came out as he was finishing up, she walked over to the large pile of small rocks they kept behind the house. Gregor went to stand ten feet in front of her, Lizzie grabbed a handful of rocks with her left hand and asked if he was ready. When he nodded she grabbed one with her right hand and threw it as fast as she could at him. Gregor leaned to the right to dodge it, then ducked beneath the next and continued to dodge the rocks she threw. After about ten minutes she stopped and Gregor walked over to the pile and grabbed to two pieces of wood he kept there. One was around four feet long, the other was a little over two feet. He walked out again, but this time he stopped about seven feet away. Lizzie started throwing rocks two or three at a time and Gregor deflected them.

This went on for another ten minutes, by then Lizzie's shoulder was on fire and she called out, "Last one. Ready?" when he nodded she scooped up a handful of rocks and threw them all at him. Gregor's arms were blurs to her as he swatted all of the rocks away before they reached him. Like always, she was stunned to see her brother's immense level of skill, she was so proud of him. She knew first hand just how hard he pushed himself to improve and be the best he could be. He trained every day since they had moved to the farm, even when he was sick, which didn't happen often. She could see the rain clouds and knew that he would stun her again when she saw how, well, superhuman he appeared when he did the rain exercise. It was something their whole family, even Grace, was awed by. Soon after these thoughts passed through her head, she felt the familiar flash of sorrow. She knew why he pushed himself everyday, he was leaving and he needed to be ready for anything, she knew the Underland was still at peace but nobody believed it would last forever. She was the only one in the family who knew he was leaving, everyone knew about his strict exercise routine, but they believed him when he said it helped him focus and relax. She was pulled from her thoughts by Gregor's voice.

"Thanks for helping me Liz. I know, I know, you enjoy hurling rocks at me, but it helps me so thanks." He looked towards the clouds, "It looks like I have about twenty five minutes until the rain hits." he placed the makeshift swords on the ground near Lizzie, who'd decided to continue watching him, and walked to a tree that wasn't far from where they were. He jumped and grabbed the lowest branch then started doing chin-ups. After a while he swung his legs up and hooked them over the branch, then hung upside down and started doing inverted sit-ups. He could only do these for a few minutes because if he did them for too long, he would get a really bad headache. By the time he lowered himself to the ground there was about ten minutes until the rain hit so he sat down next to his younger sister. He wan't surprised she was still out here, today would be the heaviest rainfall in over a month. He was sure all of his family would be watching, it made him happy that they were so proud of him, and proud that he could still leave them in awe.

"I sent Ripred a picture to give to Luxa."

Lizzie looked at him, "I know, he said she really liked it. I sent him one of my school pictures, he said it's the most precious thing he owns." she smiled at her memory of the old rat.

Gregor acted upset, "He doesn't write me anymore, he just has his mice come and check up on me. Stupid rat." he turned his head away, but then smiled and looked back at her. "Do you think she'll still love me?" He sounded very insecure, and it made Lizzie sad for him.

She thought for a moment, he wanted an honest answer and she was going to try to give him one. "I think, she will still love who you were, and she will want to love who you are, but she will want to get to know you again before she consciously makes that decision."

He looked sad, but like that was what he was thinking as well, then she saw a glimmer in his eye. "Wait, 'consciously?' So you think she'll make the decision before she gets to know me, subconsciously?"

Lizzie smirked at him, "I think she will always love you, until you give her a reason to feel otherwise. I believe it'll just take some time before she realizes that." then she stood up. "I'm going to grab a glass of water, Mom, Dad, and Boots should be home soon. I hope you're ready to entertain us." She glanced up at the sky then walked inside.

Gregor stood up and did a few light stretches then picked his fake swords back up. He closed his eyes and faced the sky, relaxing and clearing his mind. He felt the first few raindrops hit him at about the same time he heard his parents drive up towards the house. He decided to greet them since he had a little time before the rain picked up. Boots was, as always, very excited to see him, and his parents smiled and hugged him. Lizzie joined them outside and his mom noticed the rain was getting heavier and asked if he was going to start soon. "Yeah, it's heavy enough for me to start now." His family walked inside the house and watched him from a window in the living room.

He walked away from them and stood in a spot they could all easily see. He tightened his grip on his swords, his vision didn't splinter but all he could see were the raindrops in front of him, everything else had faded away. He swung the sticks in a wide arc, then quickly brought them back around, his left arm shot up diagonally to the right, his right arm swung to the left so fast it was only a blur to his family. His arms started moving faster, in more complex patterns, he started doing half turns and rapidly lunging. His footwork picked up speed, and soon he was dashing, twisting, jumping, and spinning so fast that Lizzie couldn't actually see his feet anymore, although the rain wasn't helping. Gregor's family couldn't tell what was really happening because the were so far away, even Lizzie thought that Gregor was just swinging wildly at raindrops, hitting what he could and probably counting the raindrops that he hit. That was what he had done for the first year of the exercise, then he started hitting way too many to count, now he counted the ones he missed. Inside the five foot area he moved around in, very few raindrops touched the ground. After five minutes Gregor had counted four hundred and thirty-seven raindrops. That meant that he had hit thousands, it was made easier by the fact that each swing hit as many as twenty drops, so Gregor figured he was swinging each arm more than ten times a second. He wondered if that was good for a rager, he knew Ripred didn't really train anymore, but he wondered where his three years of hard training had gotten him in comparison to the old rat. He was sure he wasn't Ripred's equal, not yet, but he could't help but wonder if -not counting experience- he was close. He put it out of his mind and continued swing for all he was worth, he tired much more slowly than he figured a normal person would so he ended up fighting water droplets for half an hour. At that point his arms started shaking and he was starting to slow down noticeably so he abruptly dropped his arms and stood up straight. His legs weren't tired yet but with all of the running he did, that didn't surprise him. He jogged over to the rock pile and dropped his "swords" then walked through the back door into his house. When he got to the living room his dad was shaking his head in disbelief with a smile on his face, his mom looked thunderstruck, Boots was smiling like a crazy child, and Lizzie was beaming with pride at him.

"So, was it as impressive as last time, or any of the other hundreds of times I've done it?" He asked playfully.

Lizzie, still smiling, spoke before anyone else had opened their mouth, "Are you sure you're entirely human? I've never seen someone move so fast that they were literally a blur." his parents looked like they were thinking something similar.

Gregor wanted to say that she had never seen Ripred fight, but he thought it might upset his mom so instead he just smiled and shook his head. He looked to his parents "When's dinner?" He asked. " I'm feeling pretty hungry after all that."

"We'll start it now, but it won't be ready for an hour so you might want a snack to hold you over." His dad walked past him towards the kitchen after he spoke.

"Okay, well I'm going to go lay down for a while. Come get me if I'm not out by the time dinner's done." With that Gregor walked to his room. He shut the door then lied down on his bed, he grabbed the picture frame resting resting on his end table and stared at the image of him and Luxa contained within. He smiled at it for a second then kissed the glass over her face and set it back on the end table. He rolled onto his back and closed his eyes. He would be with her soon, but it wasn't soon enough for him.

So I decided that even if I do stick with a third person perspective, I'm still going to use first person for the fights since they are easier to write that way. Anyway, you've probably already read, so feel free to review, if that's your kind of thing.

P.S. Sorry about any grammar errors, I watch my fingers when I type, not the screen, and I know things slip my attention.