All of us backed up into a group on the other end of the arch.

I glanced at Katherine, who was standing next to me, the dagger still in her shoulder, blood soaking her arm. "Katherine-" I started.

"Keep it in." she hissed. "It's stopping the blood."

My vision went straight back up to Xornoth. The crystal still pulsed inside his chest, and he wasn't completely opaque. He wasn't back yet.

He stared at Erin. "What?" he asked with an annoyed tone.

Erin stared between him and us. "HELP!?"

He saw us and his jaw dropped. "Uhh." He said. "Hi? What are you-" he saw the stream of purple still connecting to his chest, glanced up at Gem, then down at the dragon egg. His eyes widened. "Oh."

My eyes narrowed and I launched myself at him.

"WHAT THE-" He started as I drove my sword toward his chest. He rolled to the right, and our shoulders brushed. He was solid. I whipped around as he got to his feet and slashed my arms down toward him. Huge spears of ice erupted from the ground, their needle-sharp points threatening to impale him. Xornoth hit the ground. "HOLY- WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?" He screamed, scrambling to his feet. "SINCE WHEN COULD YOU DO THAT!?"

I didn't answer, instead I launched my sword at his head, and it stuck into the stone, flying an inch from his head. Xornoth had dove to the side, but I tackled him. "I HAVEN'T EVEN DONE ANYTHING YET!"

"I DON'T CARE!" I shouted back in anger and shoved him to the ground. But he slammed his feet into my stomach, and I smashed into the wall.

But I got straight up back to my feet and ran at him. "SCOTT, COOL IT- Wait." He snorted at his own joke before I punched him in the face, and he staggered backwards. But then something surrounded my neck and wrists and body, smashing me back into the cliffside. I looked up and saw Erin with her hand raised toward me. She had shattered the ice around her wrist, millions of little shards scattered everywhere

I began to gag as the red magic pressed against my throat like hot wires.

"Get up you idiot." Erin snapped at Xornoth.

"Okay, jeez. It's not like I was just attacked or anything..." he muttered rebelliously under his breath. Erin didn't seem to hear him.

"Nice try." She smirked at me. I could barely breathe as I struggled to pull the red coils wrapping tightly around my neck. Xornoth got to his feet, shooting me and everyone else glare, before tying his hair up.

"So, what's happening?" he asked coolly. Something was...different about him. His expressions and movements were much more...genuine and full of life than the last time I saw him. But it had been so long...maybe I was just imagining things. He glanced at everyone else, and his eyes fell on Joey. His expression fell for just a moment, until it returned in anger. "So, another traitor." He growled.

I managed to turn my head enough to see Joey. His eyes were wide with horror and...something else. His hands trembled as he took a few steps back. "I-" He stuttered.

But Xornoth turned away from him and saw Shrub lying motionless on the ground behind him before he kicked her with his toe. "Is she dead?" he asked curiously. Erin shrugged. He moved the hair out of her face with his foot. "Well, that's a shame."

"She's dead...?" Katherine peeped.

"Nah, she's breathing." Xornoth said with a disappointed frown. Katherine sighed with relief. "Of course, I could change that."

"NO!" Katherine screamed, but Sausage grabbed her arm to hold her back. Xornoth smirked, and it sent chills down my spine to see it again.

"Oh?" he asked, and bent down, grabbing Shrub's collar, and raising her limp body up. I was surprised when his translucent hand actually got a hold on her jacket. He shook her lightly, but she stayed still as death. "What if I...?" A flame lit in the palm of his hand, and he held it a few inches from her chin.

"YOU MONSTER!" Katherine screamed, tears streaming down her face.

Xornoth's eyebrows raised. "Is that really smart?" he asked, moving the flames even closer. A wisp of her hair caught fire, and my body tensed in alarm. I stretched my hand out as much as I could from Erin's hold. Frost instantly swept over Xornoth's hand and over Shrub's hair.

Xornoth looked startled then up at me. "Seriously when did you learn how to do that? You were useless just a little while ago."

"Wha-" I choked. It was getting harder to breath. "Please." I wheezed.

Erin rolled her eyes. "Whatever." She said before flicking her wrist, and I was released. I collapsed to my knees, taking deep breathes.

"See? Useless." Xornoth repeated. Then he dropped Shrub and she crumpled to the ground again.

I got to my feet, grabbing onto the cliff to stand.

"What happened to your face?" he asked, obviously talking about the cut on my cheek. Speaking of, I could feel the blood start to drip down my neck from it now.

"Stop. Acting. Interested." I spat in anger.

"Calm down, jeez..." he mumbled.

"What happened to all 'angsty and aggressive' Xornoth?" I snapped.

Xornoth pursed his lips. "I think you just described yourself..." he said slowly.

The absolute nerve of him. In anger I launched myself at him again. "HOLY SH- I'M SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONE WITH ANGER ISSUES!" He shouted as he dove out of my way.

"I WILL KILL YOU!" I roared.

"What the HELL happened to you? When you like, didn't want to kill me!?" Xornoth asked with an astonished look.

"A lot can happen in a few years." Fwhip spoke up, glancing in my directions.

"A few- how long was I in there?" he demanded, but his commanding voice couldn't hide the anxiety I heard. Or the quickened pulses of the crystal in his chest.

"It's- It's been almost three years, Xornoth." Said Joey in a small voice.

Xornoth's eyes widened, and a shocked noise escaped his mouth, but then his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Liars." He growled, and I instantly saw the old Xornoth.

"No, they're not lying." Erin said. She was floating cross-legged midair with her chin resting in her hand. Xornoth stared at her in shock. "But keep going with whatever this is, it's extremely entertaining." She said after a few moments of silence.

Xornoth's old sword appeared in his left hand, before he pointed it at me. "Come at me b-" He started, but I cut him off midsentence as my sword came flying into my hand and I lunged at him. Our swords collided and mine almost vibrated out of my hand from the strength of my blow and the strength of his stance. It was hard fighting him when he was left-handed, he could come at me from angles that I wasn't used to blocking, but I have had a lot of practice since the last time we fought. And I wasn't worried about hurting him anymore.

I pulled one of my hands from my hilt, grabbed his wrist and kicked him in the stomach. He skidded across the ground but stayed standing before swinging his sword in an arc above his head. I raised my sword and pushed us into a lock above both our heads. We were nose to nose, both struggling to stop the other from splitting each other's skull.

That's when Xornoth hit the ground, dropping our lock, and twisting on his hands, almost like breakdancing, fire exploded from the souls of his feet, and I was blasted to the side with the lingering smell of burning.

I dug my hands into the ground to avoid getting thrown down the steep hill we had climbed up to get here before running full speed at him, dropping my sword.

I threw my arm towards him, and a blast of frost erupted from me, Xornoth counteracted with fire and almost like an explosion, we were blasted backwards in a fiery swirl of heat and ice.

I went spiraling through the air and I felt my shoulder blades smash first into small, vertical somethings. The light dissipated, and I saw I was on the edge of Shrub's old cage, now occupied by Gem.

"Scott!" Gem cried, and I turned. She looked much worse this close. Her life force seemed to be quickly dwindling, dark shadows were under her eyes, and her figure seemed limp.

"I'm going to get you out of here." I said under my breath as I saw from the corner of my eye, Erin attacking the other rulers. Jimmy, Lizzie, and Joel were up now, Joel's left sleeve ripped under his breastplate, the extra cloth used to wrap around the puncture marks in his upper right arm.

I grabbed the bars and frost began to creep up them, turning them brittle. I was about to snap them, when Xornoth appeared next to me, swiftly grabbing my collar, and holding me over the edge of the cage, over the 60 foot drop down to the ground.

"This is quite a predicament, isn't it?" Xornoth said with a smirk, but I was completely caught off guard by his elvish accent that was very prominent in the sentence. But I was brought back down to earth when the souls of my feet scraped against the edge of the cage's floor. I glanced down, before I ripped Xornoth's hand from my cloak, and fell.

Ice formed underneath my feet, creating almost a slide of sorts which I slid down upright, and tumbled back down to the ground, unharmed.

My sword came flying back down into my hand. "COME FACE ME COWARD!" I shouted up. His face contorted in rage, and he teleported in front of me.

"Bring it ice boy." He growled. He slashed down at my legs, but I jumped right over the blade and swung at his head, he blocked right before I would have shaved a layer off his horns, and he twisted the blade from my hand.

But I flung my arm toward him, and ice speared the ground, shooting straight toward him. Xornoth jumped into the air, rolling over the new spike of ice, and landing on his feet before thrusting his sword at me.

I bent backwards, and the sword slid right over my nose, and I could almost taste the metal. I dropped to the ground on my back before I pushed back up and roundhouse kicked Xornoth in the side of the face.

He staggered to the left, and while he was stunned, I again punched him in the nose, covering my knuckles in his black blood.

In anger, Xornoth chopped down at me blindly with his sword. I threw myself out of the way, but it sliced through my upper arm. I tumbled across the ground, and struggled to my knees, clutching at my upper arm which had started to bleed. A lot.

Xornoth strutted over to where I had propped myself up and grabbed my jaw, pointing my face up towards his. His nose looked broken, but his face wore a smirk. "You're making this too easy." He growled.

My eyes narrowed, and I went to point my hand and blast him, but he grabbed my wrist and twisted it painfully. I bit back a scream and instead glared straight into his red eyes.

"I hope you can still fly." He said in a deadly whisper. "Or this'll be quite the mess to clean up." Then, I was enveloped in fire and thrown from the cliff. The platform and arch went over my head as I fell. I heard Gem's distant screams, as my head spun, and my stomach dropped before my brain shut off and I blacked out.