Hello people of fanfiction, and welcome back! So, before I say anything, stop. Go back and re-read chapter 16 right now, I didn't like certain parts of it, and the small changes I made will affect the entire story. So go read it. . . now. Your still here?! I said go read it! Ok, now your back, and have re-read chapter 16, onto current matters. So, for once I actually know how the entire chapter will go. I had an extra hour and a half after a test today in school, so in my 'random crap' notebook I wrote the outlines of this entire chapter, and it took up 5 entire pages. I can't help but feel that this chapter will be to short, but hey, the epic cliffhanger on the end makes up for it. So, as promised I will post the name of the person who got the question on last chapter. So, the lucky winner is: . That's, right, nobody! Xano's father was betrayed by a king, who wanted to use the flasher powers for evil, the problem is that Xano's father had the powers, and could not be controlled, so the king killed him and tried to raise Xano for evil! Problem is that Xano saw reason, and managed to resist the evil king. Some of you guys got the gist of this, though I wanted a little more detail, just a smidgen. So, as usual, all feedback is encouraged and appreciated, so have a nice day!

Fly you all high,

-Tytonic

Disclaimer: I do not own any of The Underland Chronicles, only the characters I make up and the plot itself.

Gregor and the War of the Myriapods

Chapter 17: Confession

"Oh yeah, what's going on with Zoey? She over it yet?" Asked Gregor.

"Well about Zoey. . . She went missing yesterday, and since they couldn't interrupt Luxa, they haven't started a search yet." Said Alex.

-O-

"Wait what? Are you serious? I knew she was really upset, but to runaway? If we don't find her soon something else will, or already has!" Practically yelled Gregor.

"I know! I told the guards that, but they refuse to act on it without official orders from Luxa!" Yelled Alex back.

"Well let's finish up here, and fast, we need to hurry! Luxa will be at breakfast as soon as she gets washed up!" Said Gregor.

Gregor didn't need to wait for an answer, he just rushed as fast as he could and finished cleaning himself up. He could tell, using echolocation, that Alex was rushing as well. Both boys finished in record time, and jumped out of the baths.

Both Gregor and Alex tossed on their cloths, not taking a second to make sure that they looked good. Gregor was certain he might have put his shirt on backwards. Both of the boys ran down to the dinning room, knowing they had to hurry, they were already wasting precious seconds.

They got a lot of awkward looks form servants and anybody that happened to see them. Two overlanders running side by side down the hall, starting to sweat. When the arrived in the dinning room, they found that everybody, save Zoey was their, all except for Luxa.

"Were is Luxa?!" Chocked out Alex.

"What about me?" Asked Luxa as she walked into the room, as if on cue.

"Luxa! Zoey went missing yesterday, most people are saying she probably wants to be alone, but I know her better then that, she never wants to be alone, though she may seem like she does! I went looking for her, but I can't find her anywhere! The guards refused to search without your order." Said Alex, gaining back his breath.

"What?! I know she was unhappy, but why would she runaway? Maybe she didn't like the underland, just like Gregor attempted to escape his first night here. Guards begin an official search, I want all of Regalia searched, once that is clear we will expand the search farther." Responded Luxa, the worry clear in her eyes.

Gregor, Luxa, and Alex all knew what they were doing next. Without saying a word, they all walked out of the room, and over to highhall. Gregor and Luxa both whistled, and waited for their bats to arrive. When they landed Gregor, Luxa and Alex walked over to greet them.

"Hello Chronos." Said Gregor, getting a nod in response.

"Hello Aurora, can you please call a flier for Alex? He is in need of one." Asked Luxa.

If aurora had actually made a noise, she didn't show any sign of doing so, though sure enough, a medium sized flier flew in and landed. He had a black head, a gray body, and his tail was mostly white, though it had spots of gray on it.

"Greeting, overlander, I am he called Apollo. I am too be your flier for the time being." Said Apollo. He had a deep voice, though at the same time it felt soothing.

"Hello, it is nice to meet you Apollo, my name is Alex." Said Alex. It seemed that he liked this flier already.

All 3 kids mounted up onto their respective bats, and took flight, though nobody knew exactly were they were going.

"Umm, so were exactly are we going to look?" Asked Gregor to nobody in particular.

"I thought you knew." Responded Luxa.

"And I though you knew." Said Gregor.

"Uhhh, figures, so were should we look first? She couldn't have gotten to far on foot." Asked Gregor, rolling his eyes.

"Well I for one think we should check the outer walls first, see if we can find any sign of her anywhere." Said Alex.

"Yes, let's. If she wanted to leave without being seen, she would havehad to sneak out, and in order to that she would have had to gone through some break in the wall, or jumped off of the top. She would have broken her legs had she jumped, so I will assume there is some hole int eh wall that I am not aware of." Said Luxa.

"So, who exactly are we looking for right now?" Asked Chronos.

"We are looking for Zoey. I know you have seen her, thou you might not have met her. She is the overland girl, she went missing yesterday." Said Gregor.

"Yesterday?! If she got out of the city it will be a miracle to find her alive, let aloe to find her at all!" Explained Chronos.

When Alex heard this, he had changed his position a bit, and his muscles had tightened up. Gregor could see this with his echolocation, he didn't even need the torch that Luxa was holding to see it. They were close to Regalia anyway, so the light level was high enough to see most, though by overland standers, still very dim. Gregor had always know that Alex had liked Zoey as more then a friend, but he never really showed it, and when he did, it was usually a slip up, were he made it fairly obvious by mistake. This was not a slip up, and most people would not have noticed his stress. Apparently Apollo had sensed this as well, and tried to comfort Alex.

"Do not worry overlander, she will be fine, we will find her. She could not have gotten far." Said Apollo in his soothing voice. This appeared to calm Alex down a bit, but he was still visibly stressed.

The three kids continued to fly around the wall of the city, looking for any visible breaks.

"Luxa, it's clear that all the visible parts of the wall are in tact, we need to start looking in the darker areas, the areas we can't see normally." Said Gregor, after about the 4th round around the wall.

"Yes, I suppose you are right. Ok, so find absolutely any area were you can't see the wall clearly, and make sure you search the area, we do not want to miss anything here, not even a crack in the wall." Said Luxa, getting a nod from both Gregor and Alex in response.

All three of the kids split up, all knowing they would cover more of the wall that way, and that they would be able to find Zoey faster. Gregor and Chronos began to search the wall, not needing to get next to it with a torch to see into the shadows, since they could both use echolocation. Gregor only needed to walk or fly past the wall in order to get a extremely sharp images of his entire surroundings, though he took his time anyway, knowing that if he didn't, he would only get on Luxa's bad side, and take it from personal experience, you don't want to be on her bad side.

Gregor walked along the wall slowly to make sure he didn't miss anything. He had to admit these walls were well kept, there was not a crack on them, and they were flat as can be. There was no way Zoey would have been able to get past this, well, unless she had a flier take her out, though it is highly unlikely that a flier would agree to do so, going outside the walls without official business was forbidden, and could be punished, and if you aren't careful, with your life.

Gregor made his way up and down his wall a few times, and he was 100% sure that hot even a nat could get past this wall. He was already sure of this his first time going down the wall, but by the 4th time every inch of the wall was pounded into his memory, every single scratch and nick on it. By the time Gregor had finished his 6th round, he decided to go look for the others. Gregor called out to Chronos, and ran up to the wall, jumping off of it, giving himself a great boost. The people in the underland were already good jumpers due to generations of jumping to the bats, and Luxa could jump a whopping 3-4 feet in the air, while Gregor could only get 1-2, it was just enough for a bat to catch him anyways.

"So, Chronos, did you find anything from the air?" Asked Gregor.

"Sadly, no. I could see some of the guards reaching the outer walls though, and seeing to the fact that they are still searching, I think it is safe to assume that they have not found Zoey yet. I believe that she is not in the city, and I think we are wasn't our time here." Responded Chronos.

"Yes I agree. The only reason I am still her at the wall, and not out in the caves looking for Zoey, is because Luxa would kill me if I didn't do this first." Said Gregor.

"Why would I kill you? Which of my many reasons are you referring to?" Said Luxa as she flew up on Aurora, and a few moments Apollo, along with Alex flew up to join them.

"So, did anybody fins anything? The only thing that I got was every single inch of the wall pounded into my head." Said Gregor.

"Unfortunately no, I didn't find anything. Luxa, assuming you found nothing, are their any other ways out of Regalia?" Asked Alex.

"I found nothing, and I can only think of one other way put at this time, and that would be the old nursery, but Zoey couldn't possibly have know about that, plus she would need a flier to escape their." Responded Luxa.

"Queen Luxa! We have just completed our search of the city, the overlander is nowhere to be seen, she is not in the city." Reported a guard as he flew up on a large gray bat.

"That is bad news, expand the search to outside of the city, and look at the most probable routs first. Remember, in order to go far, she would have needed light." Said Luxa.

"Yes, your majesty. We will proceed with the utmost haste." Said the guard as he rushed off to order other guards around.

"Gregor, can you think of any other ways out of Regalia? I know I am missing one, though I cannot remember what it is. I'm the queen for Sandwiches sake, I should know my own city!" Joked Luxa. It did little to lighten the mood.

"No, not off of the top of my head." Responded Gregor.

Flashback

Trying not to think of the bobbing boulders, he lit his oil lamp from a torch by the dock. On reflection, he took the torch as well. Where he was going, light would be as important as air. He blew out the oil lamp to save fuel.

He carefully climbed into one of the boats and checked it out. The torch slid into a older clearly designed for it

"How do you get this thing down in the water?" he wondered. Two ropes held it aloft. They were attached to a metal wheel that was affixed to the dock. "Well, here goes nothing," Gregor said, and gave the wheel a yank. It gave a loud creak, and the boat fell straight into the river, knocking Gregor on his rear end.

The current swept up the boat like it was a dry leaf. Gregor grasped the sides and hung on as they shot into darkness. Hearing voices, he man-aged to look back at the dick for a moment. Two underlanders were screaming something after him. The river curved and they vanished from sight.

Would they come after him? Of course they would come after him. But he had a head start. How far was it to the waterway? What was the waterway, and once he got there, where did he go next?

Gregor would have been more concerned about these questions if he wasn't trying so hard to stay alive. Along with the boulders, he had to dodge the jagged black rocks that jutted out of the water. He found an oar lying along the bottom of the boat and used it to deflect the canoe off the rocks.

The temperature of the underland had felt comfortably cool since he'd arrived, especially after the ninety-degree heat of his apartment. But the cold wind whipping up off the water made the goose bumps rise on his flesh.

"Gregor!" He thought he'd heard someone call his name.

Was it his imagination or-no! There it was again. The underlanders must be closing in on him.

"The river swerved and suddenly he could see a little better. A long cavern lined with crystals shimmered around him, reflecting back his torchlight.

Gregor made our a glittering beach flanking one side of the river up ahead. A tunnel led from the beach into the dark. On impulse, Gregor pushed off a rock and pointed the canoe toward the beach. He paddled desperately with the oar for the shore. Straying on the river was no use. The underlanders were breathing down his neck. Maybe he had time to pull up on the beach and hide in the tunnel. After they'd passed by, he could wait a few hours and try the river again.

The canoe slammed into the beach. Gregor caught himself just before his face hit the boat bottom.

End flashback

"Wait, Luxa." Said Gregor.

"What is it Gregor?" Responded Luxa.

"Do you remember the first time I was in the underland? How much I hated it?" Asked Gregor.

"Yes, you tried to escape but what importance does that hold now?" Asked Luxa.

"I tried to escape, and remember how I did that?" Asked Gregor.

"You used a boat at the docks! We never checked there!" Explained Luxa as she sped ahead.

Chronos seemed to take this as a race or something, because as soon as Aurora sped ahead, he went into overdrive and rocketed forward. It seemed that he was slightly faster then aurora, because within a few moments, he was slowly pulling ahead. It seemed that Apollo had no clue were they were going, so he stayed in the back, even though he could probably out fly both Aurora and Chronos combined. At the speed they were flying it took them all of 45 seconds to fly a 2 minute flight, and Gregor could see the confused faces of Regalians as he sped by. They probably though there was some sort of emergency, why else would 3 bats be rushing somewhere so fast?

When they arrived they found that there was only one guard on duty at the dock. The problem with this was that he was like a log, fast asleep on the ground. That didn't last long as he was awaken with a queens foot in his stomach.

"Uhhh" Moaned the man as he attempted to draw his sword.

"Do not draw your weapon on me. You were sleeping on guard, and because of this a girl escaped down the river. Go to your commander, tell him of this, if I hear you did not, then you will regret not telling him." Said Luxa angrily. As soon as the man saw her, he picked himself up off of the ground, and ran away, probably terrified of the angry queen.

"Well that's one way to make your guards terrified of you." Muttered Gregor.

"I know, isn't it great?" Asked Luxa excitingly.

"Oh you little devil." Joked Gregor as he tazed her (it's a poke on a weak spot on your side), and surprisingly, she giggled. It was not like Luxa to giggle.

"Luxa, did you just giggle?" Laughed Gregor, only laughing more when he saw her entire body flush red.

All three of the kids were laughing, but stopped immediately when they saw the spot were a boat should be, but was missing. All three of the kids mounted up onto their bats, and sped down keeping just above the river.

Gregor guessed that Zoey thought like him, because when they reached the beach, she had done the same thing he did, dragged the boat onto the shore. All of the kids dismounted and immediately began to look for signs that Zoey and been there. It didn't take very long, considering there were footprints everywhere, and some weird pattern which everybody already assumed to be slasher, but didn't want to believe it, so they tossed the idea out, but deep inside they all knew it was slasher. It seemed like there was a large fight, there were signs of a major struggle, and bits of blood here and there.

"Gregor? The foot prints look like somebody was running away, they lead this way." Said Luxa, worry evident on her voice.

"Let's follow it, I think we all know that this is Zoey, the blood doesn't look to old, but it is still old enough to be about right." Said Gregor.

Luxa and Alex nodded in response, and began to head down a tunnel. Problem was, that apparently Zoey and stopped the bleeding, because the blood trail ending, and they were going solely on footprints now. It was like this for another minute or so, until they came across a split in the tunnel, and the ground turned from sand to stone, thus leaving no footprints to follow.

"Apollo, I need you to fly back to Regalia. Get a rat that can track, and get some guards as well, her scent is bound to still be here. Once you do that come back with them, we will have further need of you." Said Luxa.

"I shall be back as soon as possible, I advise not going on, for you will get lost in the maze of caves. The last thing we need is 3 more lost people." Said Apollo as he flew off.

"Ok let's go, I vote go left." Said Luxa.

"Luxa, no. You know we can't go further, just sit down and lets find something to do." Said Gregor.

"Uhhh, I can't stand doing nothing helpful. Fine we will wait for more to arrive." Said Luxa and she slid down right next to Gregor.

"So. . . what do we do? We have at least another 10 minutes before Apollo comes back." Asked Luxa.

"Hmm, how about I try to teach you guys echolocation? I doubt you will get anywhere in 10 minutes, it took me hours and hours to learn just the basics of it." Said Gregor.

"Sounds decent to me. It would be very helpful not needing to use torches all of the time." Said Luxa.

"What else would we do? Click away master Gregor!" Joked Alex.

"So first thing is first, put out the torch, we need complete darkness for this." Said Gregor.

Luxa obeyed and put the torch out, but he could 'see' the expressions on their faces, they didn't like the idea of being without light.

"So, click with your tongue, easy enough, now click in every direction, and try to find out were I am. The click will sound different when you are facing me." Said Gregor from behind Luxa. How did he get there so silently?

This went on for about 8-9 minutes, and both Alex and Luxa never got a thing, to them it was all clicks, and nothing more. Then again, it took Gregor a very long time.

"Ok guys, good job, I will light the torch so the others can find us." Said Gregor, and soon after a burst of light came from were he was as the torch lit.

After about another minute or two, the others arrived. Their were 2 human guards, both with fliers, and a rat named Slashtail, who also had a flier. A rat couldn't run below the fliers when the only thing below them was a river. They all explained the situation to the guards and the rat, and were pleased to hear that the rat could clearly pick up the scent of Zoey, however they were not pleased to hear that he could also pick up a strong scent of Slasher. To add to that the rat said there were probably around 5-6 of them, and maybe more deeper in the tunnel.

Everybody started to follow the rats lead. Gregor had to admit that it was very boring. They had been walking for a full hour now, if they flew they wold risk loosing the scent trail. It was slow progress, very slow. This changed immediately when an earsplitting shriek, clearly female human, came from up ahead in the tunnel.

Alex's Point of View

Alex didn't even think. His brain had already registered that that was Zoey's shriek, and he broke out into a sprint. This was one of the rare occasions that he could actually run faster then Gregor. He ran for what seemed like forever, though in realty it was only for about 30 seconds.

When Alex arrived at the scene, he was horrified at what he saw. There were 7 Slasher's all in a circle around Zoey, all ready to spring in a kill her, ripping her to shreds.

The entire group jumped into action, though there were only 6 of them, and 7 Slashers. Alex ran straight for one, trying to get to Zoey. He had also mad himself a carbon shell sword (I made that name up for it, the special swords that can cut though the shell with ease), though his sword was not nearly as nice as Gregor's or Luxa's, he hadn't wanted jewels all over it, we just made it a basic sword with cool designs engraved on it.

He brought his sword up just in time to meet the tail coming down. The Slasher's own force resulted in the end of his tail bounding off into the shadows. The slasher got very enraged by this, and brought his fangs to the sword. His fangs clung onto the flat part, ripped the sword for Alex's hand, and threw it into the shadows. The amount of blood the slasher had lost was unbelievable, and before it could kill Alex, it fell to the ground, out cold, but not dead.

Alex didn't have time to watch as every other Slasher fell dead, he only concentrated on the one above Zoey, about to stab it's tail down into her, killing her. Alex could see that nobody could get to her in time, and not having his sword anymore, he did the one and only thing he could do.

Alex ran straight for the slasher, and he dived, flat-out dived forwards. The Slasher brought it's tail down, and the sound of flesh being cut into rung throughout the cave. The only thing was, it was not Zoey's flesh. Alex had dived in front of her just in time, and now had a hole through his thigh, and a large, deep gash on his back. He hole in his thigh hit an artery, thus putting him on a timer. He had 3-6 minutes before he bled to death, about a minute before he blacked out.

Alex hit the ground with a thud, and saw as the slashers head fell off, courtesy of Gregor.

Zoey rushed to Alex's side, and grabbed his hand. She already had a waterfall of tears coming out of her eyes.

"Z-Zoey. . . I-I n-need to t-tell you som. . . something." Wheezed out Alex, the sound of blood coming from his throat.

"Y-yes A-alex?" Sobbed out Zoey.

"B-before I d-die I-I w-wanted to t-tell y-you this." Chocked out Alex.

"I-I L-love y-you" Said Alex, the gurgling of blood easy to hear.

"I- I love y-you to Alex. P-please don't g-go. . Please." Whispered out Zoey.

"I-I'm I'm s-sorry" Wheezed Alex.

With that, Alex's eyes closed for what very well might be the last time.

TALK ABOUT A CLIFFHANGER! So don't hate me for killing Alex. . . Just trust me, don't stop reading the story right now because of it, it will all make sense in due time, so just trust me. This chapter has been a pain to write, but I must admit the stuff I scribbled down into my notebook was definitely a big help. So I am writing this chapter tonight, and posting it Saturday morning, to see how many views I can get in one day, so far i have gotten 260 at the most, and I want over 300! As usual all feedback is encouraged and appreciated, see you all later!

See you all later,

-Tytonic

Question: How long has Zoey truly loved Alex, whether she knew it or not?

*CLICKCLICKCLICK*

*POOF*

Tytonic- Thoughts details ideas?

Gregor- I will not talk to you.

Luxa- Me neither.

Tytonic- Oh so that's how it is? You guys are annoying sometimes.

Tytonic- Fine, give me the silent treatment. Just remember that Alex still has a chance, small, but still a chance. If you sit there and sulk over him you will waste the little time he has left. So I guess bye.

*CLICKCLICKCLICK*

*POOF*

See you guys all later, R&R,

-Tytonic