Gregor and the Bloodbath of Regalia

Chapter 3

Gregor gently laid Lizzie down on the couch. 

Gregor wondered how he'd tell his mother Lizzie had fallen unconscious. There wasn't really any way she'd be happy with the situation. 'Oh, Mom, an Underlander came to our home in Virginia--which we came to to avoid them--and made Lizzie pass out. How's dinner going?'

Like that'd work.

Gregor picked up a book Lizzie enjoyed, opening it and placing it in front of her. Maybe it'd look like she was napping.

Gregor sat down. He motioned for Hazard to do the same.

". . . So, what do you need me  for?" Gregor asked.

"Should I start from the beginning?"

Gregor sighed. "You know what I need to hear." He rubbed Lizzie's shoulder.

The boy's lime-green eyes lowered. "Two or so years ago, a man by the name of Ivor was banished from Regalia," Hazard began.

"Okay, why?" 

"He tried to assassinate Solovet during the war," Hazard said bluntly.

Like that'd ever work. That woman could kill someone with a piece of laundry lint.

"Outraged, and screaming about the injustice of Regalia, he was thrown from it." Hazard began to bounce his leg.

Gregor wondered for a moment, "What injustice?"

He mentally slapped himself.

Solovet had been the one who ordered for the research on the curse to weaponize it--and also the one who had refused to give up the cure to anyone, including the humans.  Not only that, but during the war, she'd kept his mother from going back to New York, where it was safe--where she could have been treated just fine for her pneumonia--and instead sent her to another kingdom entirely. 

She'd locked him in the dungeon  for God knows how long, because he wanted to save Luxa.

"I can see why," Gregor commented.

"Gregor, dinner's read--" Gregor's mother, Grace, stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Hazard.
"Oh. I didn't know we had company. Why didn't you tell me, Gregor?" she asked. "Why don't you go to the kitchen? I'm sure Boots could show you the way." She turned her head and shouted, "Boots! Gregor's friend is over, why don't you show him to the kitchen for dinner?"

A happy, eight-year-old Boots came running. "Did Quintin come? Did he bring Killer Bunnies?" 

Killer Bunnies was a card game that Quintin owned, and Boots enjoyed very much.

Gregor smiled. It took her two months to finally pronounce "Quintin" correctly. 

"No, this is an old friend, Hazard." Gregor gestured to the Halflander boy. "You might remember him, but it's okay if you don't--you two met when you were really small."

"Here, Gregor, can you help me with this for a moment?" Grace asked.

"Here it comes," Gregor thought. He stood up and walked away.

"Ha-zard. . ." Boots muttered softly. "That is a familiar name. . . "

Gregor's mother dragged him into the kitchen.

"An Underlander?" she hissed quietly. "Gregor--we moved to Vriginia to get away from the Underland."

Gregor twiddled his thumbs nervously. "Mom, Hazard came from New York--which couldn't have been easy on his own--to ask for my help."

Gregor's mother took his shoulders gently. "Gregor," she said softly, staring into his eyes. 

Eyes that had seen too much for a boy so young.

"You know what happened in the Underland, in Regalia," she said.

Gregor stared right back at her, unwavering. "You weren't even there. You never saw the horrors I did."

"Which is exactly why I don't want you to go back! Why nobody in this family is ever going back!" she exclaimed.

"Mom." Gregor shrugged her hands off his shoulders. "You forced me to leave the one place I felt was home. The Underland."

Grace sighed, running a hand over her face. "What did. . . It ask you to do?"

Gregor stared flatly--almost angrily--at his mother. "First off, he's not an it. His name is Hazard and he's a Halflander child; half Overlander, half Underlander. Second, he hasn't asked me for anything."

"Yet," Grace muttered.

Gregor was getting frustrated at how rude his mother was being. "Mom! Don't you remember what the Underland has done for us? We hardly had anything--but the Underlanders gave us money. They let us sell their artifacts so we could eat!" He threw his hands up in exasperation.

"And they were the ones who took your father from us. They gave him the nightmares, and you PTSD," she said without missing a beat.

Gregor ran a hand through his hair. "And they tried to make up for their mistakes. They gave him medicine. They treated you for your ailment when you were down there. Luxa of all people treated you with respect!"

After mentioning Luxa, Gregor felt a deep would in his heart--one he thought had healed--re-open. In that moment, he realized something. He missed her more than he thought he did.

And he still loved her.

"They treated me for an illness they gave me," Grace retorted. 

Gregor got angry, fed up with his mother. "Fine!" he shouted, done with fighting her. "Fine. Do what you want. Hate them. Hate Hazard. Disrespect Ares, the bat who died to save my life."

"That's what gave you PTS--" Grace tried to interrupt. But Gregor wasn't finished. 

"Oh, you're gonna use that? You're really going down there? I knew you'd do some low things, Mom, but I didn't realize you'd use Ares's death against me.

"Hate all the good people in the Underland, Mom," Gregor continued. "You can hate them all you like, disrespect the people I love, but I'm not going to stay here. I can't feel accepted. You pretend they aren't there, but the scars on my are still visible when I'm in PE.  We had swimming the other day--can you imagine how fun it was to explain to everyone why I looked like I ran through trees with branches made of broken glass?"

"Gregor, you can't be seriou--"

"Oh, and my fit when I almost killed Parker Wakefield the other week? I sank back into my rager mode. I can't control it, Mom. I can't!" he shouted. "I'm a freak. The deadly boy with PTSD and scars all over his body. I can't tell anyone anything about what's happened to me, and even if they did, they'd just look at me like I was crazy." 

"Gregor!" Grace snapped.

"No, Mom. I'm not letting you get the upper hand of me. If Hazard comes asking for help, you can bet I'm going back down to the Underland. At least they won't pretend half of my life never happened."

Gregor stormed out of the room.

"I just want you to be safe," his mother said softly.

Harold walked into the room, putting an arm around his wife. "He has to grow up someday." He rubbed Grace's shoulder. "You can't keep him forever."

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A/N: 'Sup guys? I decided to crank out a third chapter of this fanfiction before I left for my cousin's vow renewal tomorrow. Hope I didn't fail too badly!

-Jay