Gregor and the Prophecy of Destruction - a Gregor the Overlander fanfiction

Chapter 11

Gregor had to blink a few times to fully process what he was seeing. He thought he was crazy. Maybe this was all a dream. The Bane couldn't be alive. Gregor had slain him with his own sword.

Yet, standing in front of him, was...

Gregor took a closer look and realized it was not the Bane. It was a different rat with white fur. He looked very similar to the Bane, but there were small differences in their faces.

After a moment or two of silence, Gregor snapped out of it and remembered why he was there. He pulled out his sword and clenched his teeth. "Where's my sister?"

"Ah, so you must be the Warrior," the rat said with a sly grin. "Nice to meet you. Would you like to come inside for some tea and crumpets?"

"Who are you?" Howard shouted. It was obvious he was just as shocked as Gregor.

"My name is Ratriff," he said. "I'm sorry for not mentioning that earlier. Come, come, we have been expecting you."

Gregor stepped forward. "No more games. Take me to my sister."

"Your sister?" Ratriff said with a cackle. "Which one? The little one who thinks everyone is her friend? Or the smart one who knows how to decode the secret messages we were sending in the battle?"

"Lizzie?" Gregor gasped. "But... no... that's impossible! You... you can't have her! She was safe!"

Ratriff laughed. "No, I don't have Lizzie. But I'll make you a deal. You come alone and bring me Lizzie and I'll bring you Boots."

"No," Ripred hissed. "No deals. You're going to give Boots to us. Now."

"Hey, where did your little flier friend go?" Ratriff asked. "She just disappeared."

Gregor turned around to look at Nike, who was still fluttering over them. When he turned back around, Ratriff was gone.

"What the..."

And in a flash, Ripred was on his tail.

Gregor jumped onto Nike's back, where Howard was already sitting. As soon as he got on, Nike took off, flying through the narrow cave behind Ripred. Gregor drew his sword and prepared to fight.

Not even a second later, rats were attacking them from all sides. Gregor and Howard were slashing away at claws while trying to avoid being hit. Suddenly, a claw swept Howard off his feet. He was slammed onto the ground by another rat.

Without warning, the cave started to collapse. Gregor grabbed Howard's hand and tried to pull him back onto Nike's back, but he was too heavy. Nike kept shouting something along the lines of, "He is my bond! I cannot leave him!"

Eventually, Gregor realized what he had to do and jumped off of Nike. She screamed for him to get back on, but he ignored her and threw Howard onto her back. He welcomed the rager sensations that were finally starting to come and fought his way through the collapsing cave. Every rat that came at him was struck down with his sword. He kept running forward. As he ran, he realized how out of shape he was. He panted as he sprinted through the mess of rats.

After a few minutes that felt like grueling hours of work, Gregor finally caught a glimpse of Ripred up ahead. He was in a battle with Ratriff, and he was clearly raging. It was obvious who was going to win.

Ripred knocked Ratriff down to the ground. He scrambled back up, weakened by the blow, and ran to the far wall of the cave.

"Please!" Ratriff shouted. "I'm nothing like him!"

With this comment, everybody stopped fighting. The rats stood down. Nike and Howard fluttered to the ground.

Ripred pinned him to the wall. "Go on, traitor. Plead your case."

"It wasn't his fault," Ratriff said quickly with a panicked tone. "The Bane was born innocent. He only turned on you because of the way you treated him."

Ripred scowled at the white rat. "What do you mean?"

"You," Ratriff explained. "You treated him terribly. His parents were killed... Gregor brought him back from the maze to you. You called him names, made fun of him, and you even fought him. You were not ready to raise a child!"

Ripred instantly dug his claws into Ratriff's shoulder, making him scream in pain. Gregor slowly shifted backwards.

"I never fought him," Ripred sneered. "He tried to fight me. And don't you ever say that I wasn't ready to raise a child! I raised a child before, in case you didn't know."

"It wasn't just you, though," Ratriff argued. "People made fun of him because he was so emotional. People even made fun of him because he had white fur."

"But most of all," Ratriff continued, "People feared him. People feared he would become a monster."

"Yes, and look what happened to him!" Ripred yelled, digging his claws in further.

Ratriff groaned in pain before replying. "Twirltongue was the worst of them all. She persuaded him to hate the world. There were so many things that pushed him to the breaking point. Pearlpelt would never have turned out this way if it wasn't for the bad influences in his life."

"What does any of this have to do with you?" Ripred questioned, obviously growing more impatient by the second.

"After he died, I swore to myself never to make the same mistakes my father made," Ratriff responded.

At this statement, the room got quiet. Gregor contemplated this. The Bane had a pup? It didn't make sense. When, and why, would he have a pup?

"You automatically assumed I was bad," Ratriff said after a moment's pause. "Because of the color of my fur. But I'm on your side."

He turned to Gregor. "I can help you get your sister back."

Gregor quickly put his sword away. "Ripred, get off him."

"He's lying," Ripred argued. "You're really going to believe him? Who's your mother?"

"Twirltongue," Ratriff answered.

Ripred threw his paws up. "See? He can't be trusted."

"We're here to save Boots!" Gregor yelled. "Do whatever you want with Ratriff. But we're wasting time. So I'm going to find my sister." He drew his sword once again. "Come on, Howard. Nike."

"Think about it, boy," Ripred warned. "You don't know where she is, or who's guarding her, or even how you're going to get her out of here." He stepped away from Ratriff and slashed at his shoulder one last time, making him shriek.

"I'm giving you one chance to take us to Boots, and one chance only," Ripred told him in a firm, serious tone. "Try anything stupid and you're dead."

Ratriff nodded, still shocked by the pain in his shoulder. He limped along through the cave. Gregor and the others followed him.

Gregor thought hard about what Ratriff had said. It was true - the Bane was born innocent. And his feelings had been too much for him. He had turned on the humans. He had turned on Ripred. He had betrayed them all.

But whose fault was it, really?

Gregor shook his head and groaned. He had to keep his head in the game.

But suddenly, two things happened that took his focus away completely.

Ratriff screamed as he tripped over a rock and fell into deep, dark pit.

And then, Gregor saw it.

His little sister, Boots, was sitting on top of the lifeless, barely twitching body of Temp the cockroach.

She squealed and giggled and clapped her hands. What she said shattered his heart.

"Gre-go! I pway with Temp!"