So hey guys hows it going? Before I say anything else, GO READ CHAPTER 19. I know you all already read it, but I have redone the entire chapter yesterday, so it's now basically a new chapter. Go read it. Now. Done? I don't believe you. Do it now. Now you done? Ok that's better, lets get started. So before I say anything, this chapter is not chapter 20 redone. I have entirely deleted chapter 20, and this picks up were 19 left off. It will not have anything that 20 had, only the beginning of the battle, or if I make it a long chapter, the end of the battle as well, which is fairly likely. So, I am pretty sure that Hayden will be introduced in this chapter, so that's good. I have been trying to think of ideas for this part of the story, but instead I now have the entire final couple chapters planned out, so that will help when the time comes. So, I guess I will see you guys after the chapter!

See you later tots,

-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 20: He's back

The bat had 2 large gashed running down it's stomach, and it was bleeding heavily. It was clear a slasher had done this.

"S-slasher. . . h-hundreds m-marching. . . o-on. . . R-regalia. . ." Wheezed out the flier. With one final gasp for air, the flier stopped moving, and thus it's light had been lost.

-O-

Gregor's eyes widened the second he heard this. He knew exactly what this meant. More then likely he would not only be forced to fight, not that he would have to be forced, but that he would be stuck right in the front lines due to his abilities. Ripred would most likely be positioned near him, and maybe Xano would be tossed in somewhere. Gregor snapped back to reality when the arena burst into frantic activity.

"Gregor! Come, we are to report to the war room!" Shouted Luxa, already up on Aurora. Gregor hadn't even seen her jump up.

Gregor gave it no second though as he whistled and jumped, and was caught by Chronos. He decided to see if Chronos knew nay thing about what was going on.

"Hey Chronos, you know exactly whats going on here?" Asked Gregor.

"I know no more then you do, only that the slashers are marching on Regalia. The scouts wont be able to report much more either. In fact, the scout is laying dead in the arena as we speak; we will only be able to find out were they are coming from, unless we send out more scouts." Responded Chronos.

Gregor did not respond. The continued their flight to the palace. After what seemed like hours, but was, in reality, only a few minutes, they landed in highhall. Gregor immediately jumped off of Chronos's back, and jogged down the hall that he could hear Luxa going down. It took him but a few moment to catch up to her.

"Hey Luxa, what exactly is gonna happen here?" Asked Gregor.

"Well, You already know that there is going to be a battle. We know not of how these creatures fight, so we cannot rely on our normal battle strategies." Responded Luxa.

Gregor did not need to ask again, he could tell that Luxa knew no more then he did; after all, she was right next to him when they found out of this upcoming battle. Gregor was so deeply lost in thought that by the time they arrived at the war room, he almost kept walking right past it.

Both Gregor and Luxa entered the Room, but instead of seeing people sitting down for a meeting, they only saw a few men in the room gathering up scrolls, probably from a previous meeting. Gregor could visibly see that this did not make Luxa very happy.

"What are you doing?! Regalia is about to become under attack from hundreds of slashers! Go get the rest of the military leaders! We have no time to waste!" Shouted Luxa.

It was either the weight of the situation, or the harshness in Luxa's words that got the men moving. Probably both, but either way, all of their eyes widened and they sprinted out of the room shouting stuff around. Gregor and Luxa were now alone in the room. Luxa looked like she as about to buckle under all of the stress.

"Gregor. . . what do you think will happen? To Regalia, to the underland? This is all to much for me. . . far to much stress, I can't handle it all." Asked Luxa. She looked like she was on the verge of tears, a mental breakdown.

"Don't worry Luxa. Everything will be fine. We will win this war, we will stop the slashers. You don't have to handle all of this by yourself. I'm here to help. Ripred, Mareth, Vikus, Howard, and everybody else are here to help, don't take everything on by yourself. We will all help you, I'll help you." Gregor whispered into Luxa's ear as he pulled her into a comforting hug.

"Thank you. . ." Luxa whispered as she leaned into Gregor's embrace.

Luxa and Gregor staying in that position for a short amount of time, with Luxa resting her head on Gregor's shoulder. It was not long before both of their gazes met, and they looked into each other's eyes. They both stared, attempting to read each others eyes, but neither of them noticed as they slowly eased inward. It was only once their lips met that they closed their eyes, breaking eye contact. This was not a passionate kiss, no, this was a comforting kiss. It was intended to help Luxa feel better, and Gregor knew it was having it's desired effect as she visibly relaxed, and seemed to melt away into his embrace.

Gregor's eyes snapped open in an instant, and he pulled away from Luxa, and he eased more into his seat next to her. Her eyes looked hurt, but instantly changed when she realized why. They both watched as Ripred dragged his mangy hide into the room.

"No need to hide it pups. I could smell the love radiating from this room a mile away. Only a little shy of a mile where my echolocation picked it up. Good to see you noticed me, boy; you might have even been practicing." Said Ripred, using lower than usual levels of sarcasm.

"I never really did much while I was in the overland. I would go to school, go home, do whatever work they assigned me, and I would lay in bed for the rest of the day, blinds closed, and lights out, so it was dark. Not much else to do, save practice." Responded Gregor.

"That is all you did? What about at your school, what did you do there?" Asked Luxa.

"I never really did much at school either. I kept my grades high enough to pass school, and I ignored most other people." Responded Gregor. He knew he was leaving a few events out.

"Now now boy, don't forget why you got suspended. . ." said Rirped.

"How did you? Never mind, I don't wanna know. Yes I got suspended for 2 weeks." Said Gregor.

"You got suspended?! Why?" Asked Luxa, shocked.

"I kind of got into a fight. . . with five guys against me." Explained Gregor.

"Why did you get into a fight?" Asked Luxa.

"Alex was criticizing me when I rejected Zoey. . . She is one of the most popular girls in the school, and almost every boy drools over her. Only a few, like me, didn't. When he was criticizing me, I kind of snapped and yelled at him, saying I left somebody back in NewYork. I took out the picture of us when the school bully snatched it from my hands. He started calling you a freak, and making fun of you in every way possible. Silver hair, pale skin, and purple eyes aren't exactly normal in the overland. When he wouldn't give it back, I threatened him. He just laughed at me, he had 4 of his friends for backup, even if I could beat him in a fight. He was way to overconfident. I swear, Boots could fight better then him. It took only a few seconds before I had all five of them out cold on the ground. I didn't want to deal with it all, so I ditched school and went home." Responded Gregor.

Ripred snorted, and chuckled under his breath. Luxa started at Gregor like he was crazy. She had just begun to respond when Gregor held up a hand to silence her. Mareth and Perdita walked into the room. A few moments later more people began to arrive. There were some Gregor recognized from training, but very few, maybe only 3-4. Xano scuttled in last, and got many threatening and warning glares. He went to the side, since he could not actually sit in a seat. The meeting began.

"So, as we all know at this point, the slashers have launched an invasion on Regalia. We have little information as of now, but I have been informed of their current status. They seem to be about an hour out, and they have numbers around 500-600. In our current state all of Regalia will be destroyed, and even the palace will be taken." Mareth said while standing. He sat down once he finished.

Ripred stood and said "I believe you are correct, Mareth. You will need support from the gnawers. I highly suggest sending a message asking for two thirds of their forces, tell them that I approve of this."

Many of the members at the table murmured in agreement, and Luxa nodded to the nearest guard. The guard quickly left the room in a rush to get the message out. Three men had just finished laying out the map of the underland. It was a different map then what Gregor remember. This map had Regalia in the center of it, and it showed all of the surrounding land for about a mile or two in every direction. They began to put out markers to represent the slashers, and they put the ally markers to the side, so they could decide how to position everything.

"Ok, so as you can all see, this is how the slashers will be approaching us. It seems that they are planning a head on strike. We will need heavy defense on the west wall to repel as much of the attack as possible. We need ideas for these defenses. Most of our normal defenses will not work against this enemy. Before we begin to brainstorm, I suggest that we hear more about the way slashers fight. Xano, would you please?" Said Mareth.

Part of the group parted a little, allowing Xano to come through to the table. If looks could kill, he would have died a thousand times over at this instant. He didn't seem to mind very much.

"Yes, thank you Mareth. As most of you could have assumed, the slashers will not wait for the signal to being battle. When they arrive, they will attack as soon as possible. They have very strong legs, and can walk upside down on the room if they must, so they will use that to get straight through our defenses. We will need some way to stop them from going along the walls or roof of the cavern. They are not organized as well as we are, they will not have distinct battle lines or positions. They are similar to the cutters, care not of how many they lose, and I can guarantee that if we win this battle, they will send many, many more soon after. In this battle, they just about match our numbers, without the gnawers, who will arrive after the battle has begun. As we all know, one normal soldier is almost always going to loose to a signal slasher. We have Gregor here, Ripred, and myself, who are all ragers of sorts. We will be able to take fight through many at a time." Said Xano, he then proceeded to back away once more.

"Thank you, Xano. I agree that you, Rirped, and Gregor are extremely valuable in this fight. I would suggest putting you three on the front line. Gregor in the right front, Ripred in the center front, and Xano in the left front. Does anybody oppose this idea?" Asked Mareth.

There were a few murmurs, but nobody opposed the idea. Seeing this, Mareth moved three small custom pieces onto the map in the formation they discussed. Apparently these three warriors had special markers.

"Very well then. This will give us a strong defense at the front, and will help repel a large amount of the attack. Any slashers that get through will be taken care of by the soldiers directly behind these three. Next, I recommend using out top ten to fill in the points between these three. This would be excluding Hayden, and Luxa, our numbers three and four, for obvious reasons. We can fill any gaps in the first line with the soldiers approaching the top ten list. Does anybody oppose this idea?" Asked Mareth.

When nobody spoke out, Mareth slid some regular pieces in to complete the front line.

"Does anybody have any suggestions on how many lines of defense we should place after this? We only have up to 6 more lines available." Asked Mareth.

"I have an idea. We should put 3 lines behind the first line, then we should have 2 more lines farther back, but they should be armed with bows and arrows. In the overland, thousands of years ago, they had hundreds of archers line up and all shoot to the same area at the same time. It was next to impossible to survive this without a way of blocking many arrows at a time. Normally the shells would serve this purpose, but if we use the new metal, we may be able to take out a substantial number of the slashers before they even hit the first line. The final line should be kept back as backup, or as a special weapon crew. I remember during the war of time we dropped explosive boxes down onto the gnawers. We could do the same here." Recommended Gregor.

"I believe that the boy is good with the explosive boxes, but we would not be able to do the archers. We do have bows, but not near enough for that, and we have very limited amounts of these new arrows, most of the metal has been going to melee weapons." Said Ripred.

"Well, then do we agree that using these boxes is a good idea?" Asked Mareth.

"It would be a great idea. The slashers hate fire, it may not hurt them to much, but they do fear it greatly. They will overcome that fear in battle, but they will hesitate before making any more moves. Most of them will avoid the fire at almost any cost. They only cross it if they need to. This also means that we could oil the cavern, and light it on fire. The heat rising will prevent most of the slashers from going across the roof and walls. If any do, which a few will, we can have, say ten archers ready, to shoot them off of the roof. I highly recommend that you do not use fliers, or limit the usage of them. They will be able to swipe a flier straight out of the air with ease." Said Xano.

"It is true. When we were flying in the uncharted lands, they ambushed us. Multiple fliers were taken out of the air within seconds, and we had to have been at least 50 feet off of the ground at the time. We should only use the fliers for things such as dropping the crates, or emergencies." Said Rirped.

"Well then we shall limit use of fliers. Does anybody have any more ideas as to what we should do?" Asked Mareth.

When nobody answered, Mareth nodded and began to talk once again.

"Then this meeting is dismissed, if any of you wish to stay and discuss plans further then you are welcome to. I will be in here right up until the battle, have a nice day." Said Mareth as he sat back down.

Around half of the people in the room left. Xano choose to stay, Gregor and Luxa both left, and Ripred followed them out. Gregor quickly turned right as he was being dragged somewhere by Luxa. He barely heard Ripred yelling at them to meet him at the wall in half an hour. Gregor let Luxa lead him somewhere for a minute or so before they came across a room Gregor knew fairly well: The museum. Gregor sat down with Luxa at the far end, where they sat before the war of time.

Gregor felt Luxa lean into his side slightly, and He wrapped his arms around her, and she wrapped her arms around him. The needn't exchange any words, instead they just sat there, in each other's embraces.

Their faces slowly inched closer, until their lips met, and they picked up right were they left off when Ripred had interrupted them. This time there was more passion in the kiss then previously, were it had been comforting Luxa.

There was a strong sense of deja vu to this. Them both being in the museum, showing their feelings for each other, when they may very well both be dead within the next hour.

How times flys, it felt like mere seconds to Gregor, when in reality it had been about 20 minutes. They had to get some armor and get to the wall to see Ripred. Gregor and Luxa bit each other fair well, knowing they may very well never see each other again.

Gregor walked for a minute or two before he entered the armory. He was instantly bombarded with people measuring him. Before he could respond he was dragged over to Miravet.

"Ahh there you are Gregor. I have been waiting, we have refitted your armor. We made it slightly thinner, more room for muscle you have acquired. It has been stretched slightly to fit your height, and it has been refitted with new metals in places. I hope it is to your liking." Said Miravet, before people started to forcefully strap the armor onto Gregor. It fitted nicely, and it was fairly light, so it would not be to much of a bother.

"Yes, it fits nicely, now I really have to get going, I have to meet Ripred on the wall in like, a few minutes." Said Gregor as he began to walk away.

"Yes, I understand. Now hurry to Ripred, he will need you in the battle." Responded Miravet just as Gregor left the room.

It was a few minute walk down to highhall, though it took a little longer, with an irritating delay. He was about halfway to highhall when a voice called to him.

"Hey, warrior!" Yelled the voice as a man Gregor had never seen ran up to him; the man winced in pain as he stopped running.

"It is an honor to meet you, savior of the underland." Said the man.

"Nice to meet you to. . . and you are?" Asked Gregor.

"Ahh yes, how rude of me. I am Queen Luxa's beloved. I am her fiancé, Hayden." Responded Hayden. It took Almost all of Gregor's will power not to ram his sword right through the mans chest at that instant.

"Yes, it is nice to meet you Hayden." Responded Gregor as he shook the mans hand. He could tell Hayden was trying to tighten his grip to show Gregor his strength, but he just wasn't making the cut, it might have been because of his injury, but maybe because he could be a weakling.

"I will be overlooking the battle alongside of my beloved Luxa; I am not fit to fight with my injury. Luxa will be over joyed to see me once more, it has been a long time since I last saw her." Said Hayden.

Gregor literally couldn't hold back. He was about to hit Hayden in the gut, but thankfully Ripred came around the corner just in time to distract the two. Gregor could have sworn that Hayden had just been so obsessed with Luxa just to piss Gregor off.

"There you are Gregor. I was wondering what was taking you so long, now get over here. Hayden, go scurry back to what ever hole you came from." Said Ripred as he quickly led Gregor away before Hayden could respond.

They walked all the way down to highhall, and both mounted fliers. Gregor got on Chronos, while Ripred got on a very large rust colored flier.

"Thanks a lot Ripred. I think if you hadn't come in I would have torn his heart out with my teeth." Said Gregor.

"I could tell. He may be blind enough to miss it, but you were tense as a rock. I overheard the entire conversation, he is way to obsessed with my bond, as well as being king. You haven't seen the king side of him yet, but it can be just as bad. If I could have, I would have let him die when he got his injury." Said Ripred.

"Gregor. Do me, and all of Regalia a favor, don't let Hayden become king. I have information to show that he is being used like a puppet by the council. They will rules Regalia through him if he becomes king." Said Ripred.

Gregor looked Ripred in the eye. He could see it, rager to rager, the importance of this.

Gregor Responded " I will Ripred, I will."

So what did you guys think? I think it is a HUGE improvement, just it ind of feels like it fell apart at the end, but oh well, it still works. I managed to Introduce Hayden into the story, that's good. I really wonder how long Gregor will go before he can't take it and kills Hayden. Actually, that was a lie, I don't wonder. I already know what happens with Hayden and the whole Luxa marriage thing. You guys will love that part, it is hilarious on some degree, how everything goes down. Such simple things happen, yet so much occurs as a result. Just stick around and you guys will see. So, my story should be going strong again, and I'm going to continue it like normal now. I really do have to say, this chapter was really hard to do, and the next will be as well. It's just hard to make it to my liking. As usual, all feedback is encouraged and appreciated, so give me any and all thoughts on the chapter! See you guys later!

See you peeps later,

-Tytonic

Question: How will Luxa react to seeing Hayden again?

*CLICKCLICKCLICK*

*POOF*

Tytonic- so, how did you guys like that chapter?

Luxa- It was great! For the most part.

Gregor- I swear I am going to tear out his throat.

Tytonic- No, we need Hayden later in the story.

Luxa- Wait, you met Hayden?!

Gregor- Yes, I did, and he would not stop talking about ho you and him are so deeply in love and how he will marry you and become king.

Luxa- If I end up marrying him, I will be miserable. Don't be surprised is my 'beloved' husband gets assassinated.

Tytonic- Nope, my choice not yours!

*Gregor and Luxa both grumble to themselves*

Tytonic- Well, I will let you guys talk this over, see you later!

*No response*

Tytonic- Fine be all negative then.

*CLICKCLICKCLICK*

*POOF*

See ya'll later,

-Tytonic