AN: Sorry the last chapter took so long to put up, but I had a little bit of a writers block. It's gonna take a while for the next chapter because it's surprisingly hard to write a prophecy, so thumbs up to Sandwich who wrote a ton in a few years! Thank you to Klbooks who was my Beta Reader for this chapter and thanks to the very few people who have reviewed and put this on Story Alert.

Lizzie sat on Izz's back with her head down, her face red with embarrassment. As they walked through the streets of Regalia, people's heads turned and stared at them. If they had been normal Underlanders no one would be making a fuss, but they were Overlanders and looked fairly similar to the Warrior and his two sisters, the Princess and the Code Breaker.

When they rode through a part in the city, the loud market chatter would stop abruptly, making all six visitors uncomfortable and slightly uneasy. Then as they left the whispers and pointing began.

"Is that the warrior?"

"Could that be the princess?"

"Where's the code breaker?"

"What are the roaches doing here?"

"Is there a new prophecy?"

"Are we all going to die?"

"Is something going on?"

"Look at how hot he got!"

"Do you think he knows?"

"Do any of you have lives? And you, stop muttering to one another and pay for that or leave!" One shopkeeper or another would finally end the stares and Gregor would give him or her, a friendly nod.

"Why are we in Regalia again?" Gregor could feel butterflies start up in his stomach as he saw the quickly approaching palace. He had known that they would eventually come to Regalia, but he had hoped to stall the matter when he agreed to have the cockroaches take him to Temp.

"Live here, Temp, live here." Zip said simply as if that explained everything.

"Yes, I understand that, but why does he live here? Shouldn't he live with the rest of the roaches?" Gregor said this slowly, not to insult Zip's intelligence, but so she would understand what exactly it was he was asking.

"Temp, ask Temp." The roach said as they walked past the arena where Gregor first met Luxa. The cockroach wasn't being that big of a help. Gregor understood not to press her further though; he didn't want to make her frustrated and angry at him, for these cockroaches were easily offended.

"Okay Zip, okay." Gregor sighed defeated. They were nearing the draw bridge and his earlier butterflies had turned into nausea. Lizzie seemed to sense this and bit her lip but before she got the chance to open her mouth a very familiar face came into sight.

"Vikus!" Gregor and Lizzie shouted the name of their friend simultaneously.

Boots whipped her head around from where she had been studying the light source of this strange underground city, Regalia, which she had no memory of. As soon as she saw the face she knew it was familiar and her mind instantly launched into a flashback.

She was sitting at a stone table surrounded by delicious food that smelled better than any aroma she had ever had the pleasure of inhaling. Then she was back again and feeling very confused and flustered about she had just seen, or experienced rather, she was now sure she had been here before.

"Okay Gregor, from what I can guess, we're in this 'Regalia' place, so can you please tell me what's going on now?"Boots' voice was edged with agitation and murder, but Gregor wasn't ready to tell that long of a story yet.

"Not now, Boots! Let me and Lizzie catch up with some old friends after taking a bath and getting dressed in Underland clothes, and then, us and our friends will sit down and tell you the story together. Okay?" Gregor knew that his tone was harsh, but he was so excited and Boots was being a buzz kill and Gregor realized that his excitement would turn to horrible nerves if he didn't stay positive.

"Ok! Gosh, I was just asking." Boots said her voice noticeably breaking.

Gregor sighed; he hadn't meant to intentionally hurt his little sister, but sometimes the age difference between the two was apparent. He was about to apologize sincerely and over dramatically, so that he could try and coax a smile out of her, but he never got the chance. They had reached Vikus and Lizzie was jumping down off of Izz's back and running to greet him with a hug.

When she reached him however, only his left arm lifted up to wrap around her in welcome. Oh no, the stroke must have paralyzed the right side of his body, Gregor thought and frowned. He guessed it was a good thing that the man was too old to go into battle. With this, he dismounted from Zip and walked over to help Boots off of Lil.

"Thank you for bringing us to the home of Temp." Gregor said earnestly, but he was really just trying to draw out the time till he saw with the only girl he ever loved.

"You're welcome warrior, you're welcome." Lil, Zip, and Izz said all at once.

Gregor tapped his foot trying to think of another way to stall, but his mind drew a blank. Crud… Oh well, here we go.

"Gregor, what brings you here? Regalia thought we would never be blessed with your presence again." Vikus smiled, but it was weird seeing only half of his face light up. Plus he looked as if he were keeping something back, although Gregor couldn't tell if this was because he was, one of the affects of the stroke, or because he hadn't seen him in four years.

"It's Mrs. Cormaci," Gregor said, remembering the real reason he was here. He had been so caught up in the thought of seeing old friends, he forgot about her. All the worry he had had when they first descended came flooding back and he suddenly found himself fighting back tears.

"Well about that Gregor, Mrs. Cor-"He began, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, but was interrupted by a squeal that was really inappropriate for an old woman.

She rushed out of the palace having handed her tray of oatmeal cookies to a bystander, and ran to Gregor, who openly embraced her.

"Oh Gregor! You never told me how simply splendid this place is! The way you described it, I always thought it was a dark horrible place with a society bent on using others for their own biding, but these people are so nice and wonderful!" Mrs. Cormaci's face had a few more laugh and frown lines, but other than that she remained the same. "Oh, and I've met that Luxa girl, she was a fine choice if you ask me," Gregor's face had already been beet red when she mentioned her previous take of the Underland, but now he wanted to run away and hide under a rock when she mentioned that he talked to her about Luxa. As it was, he had to put his hands over his face to hide the growing blush.

"And that giant rat I was always baking cookies for, said that you never shared with him. Only sweet little Lizzie, he said." She smiled at Lizzie who was climbing off of Izz to give Mrs. Cormaci a hug.

"Oh, and that Temp fellow was quite creepy, but we've gotten along fine while I've been down here. He tells me all the time how much he misses young Margaret, I mean Boots, who, by the way, hasn't given me hug!"Mrs. Cormaci faked offense but smiled. She probably knew that Boots had no idea who she was, so when Boots didn't move, she left it alone.

Gregor was really confused; he couldn't even begin to grasp what was going on, but Lizzie knew and this launched her into an attack. She gulped in air and grew very pale. As this happened, a figure came out of the shadows hurriedly, trying to calm the girl and getting her to breathe into the bag.

"Ripred!" Lizzie turned around and put her arms around the giant rat's neck. A few tears slowly leaving tracks on her face from the joy of being reunited with a friend and from the fear of knowing what was to come.

"Lizzie, what's wrong?" Gregor's brow was furrowed with concern.

"Oh Gregor," She gulped in air, because sobs were beginning to rise from within her, "Th-th-there's a n-new prophecy!"