Hello! I am Teenaged Author! And this is my first fanfic for The Underland Chronicles. I'm experienced in writing Percy Jackson fanfiction, so if you already know me, great! If you don't, now's your chance to get to know me! Anyway, I wasn't fond of how Gregor and the Code of Claw ended cause it left me with one haunting question...What's going to happen to Gregor and Luxa?!

I loved the couple ever since Susanne introduced the idea that they could end up together, and I just loved the thought of it happening. So I wrote this! Enjoy it!

Gregor and the Call of Destiny

Part 1-The Unexpected

CHAPTER 1

Gregor sat on the couch of his apartment in New York, fingering the picture he always kept with him. He missed her. He missed Ripred, and Mareth, and Howard, and Hazard. But he missed her, his love, his Luxa most of all.

He sighed as his mom entered the apartment with some groceries. She was smiling, but there was nervousness to everything she did since she had gotten back from the Underland.

"Gregor, could you help me with the groceries?" She called. Gregor stood up, slipping his picture back into his pocket, and went to help his mother with the food. His three-year-old sister Boots was sitting on the living room floor playing with her plastic animals. She arranged plastic bats, rats, and cockroaches in front of her so that it looked like they were bowing to the 'princess'.

"Look, Gregor!" Her voice giggled as he put away the last of the groceries. "I ride! I ride!"

Gregor popped his head in to see Boots trying to ride on of her plastic cockroaches that she had named after the giant one she had befriended in the Underland. Gregor gave a weak laugh.

"I see, Boots," He made his way through the plastic toys and swooped up his baby sister. "I see."

Boots had on a wide smile as she held the toy closer to her. "Go see Temp? We go see Temp, Gregor?"

Gregor smiled sadly and shook his head. "Not today, Boots. I wish we could, though."

Boots frowned and struggled out of Gregor's arms. She went into the kitchen where their mother was sitting, waiting for his father to return from the hospital with news on grandma.

"Mommy?" Gregor heard Boots ask.

"Yes, sweetie?" His mom replied absently. Gregor's blood ran cold. His mother didn't have many good memories of the Underland. The only one was probably Hazard's birthday party, when she saw Gregor happier than he'd ever been, and before her relapse.

"Go see Temp? We go see Temp?" She repeated the question. Gregor could practically see her holding up the toy cockroach to his mother's face. He could see the horror in her eyes...the temptation to just pack up and move to Virginia, no matter what Lizzie and Gregor wanted…to leave the Underland behind and move on.

Gregor silently went to his room. He missed Luxa now more than ever. They may have only been twelve, but he felt much older than that. He felt nearly sixteen or seventeen to have seen so much war and carnage, to have experienced such strong emotions like love. He knew he was in love. He was sure it was love. Not like the fake love most junior high students felt.

"I-I'm sorry, sweetie," his mom's quavering voice flittered through the small apartment. "N-Not today."

"Now, Mommy! I see Temp now!" Boots insisted. His mom must be on the verge of tears now. The thought of her youngest child wanting to descend into a dark, dank world like the Underland must be horrifying to her. "It probably doesn't help that I want to go back, too," Gregor thought.

"Boots, li-listen to me, sweetheart. We're not going to go see Temp today, okay?" Her voice was sterner than what she would've normally used with Boots. Boots' audible sobs started soft, but grew louder every second.

The whole building had become accustomed to this since two months, three days, four hours and twenty-eight minutes ago, since the family had returned from the last trip to the Underland; Boots would ask the same question and get the same answer, making her cry.

Lizzie came to the frame of Gregor's small room. She stood there with red-tinted brown eyes. She had cried at least once every day since they'd left the Underland, too, only his sister's sobs were softer and more controlled than Boots'. Gregor sat up on his bed, crisscrossed his legs, and opened his arms, silently telling her to come over.

Lizzie rushed onto the bed and crawled over to Gregor. She hurried into his arms, warm tears falling down her face.

"I miss Ripred," She said into his shoulder. Gregor stroked his sister's hair and rubbed small circles on her back.

"I know Liz. Even I miss the old rat," He told her. The corners of her mouth twitched upward, but soon drooped into a frown again as Boots' cries got louder.

"Do you miss her? The queen?" Lizzie looked up at Gregor. Gregor's eyes softened tremendously.

"I'll always miss her, Lizzie. Nothing could make me happier than to just see her again," He confessed. It was no use trying to hide it from Lizzie.

"What's love feel like, Gregor?" She asked him, throwing him off guard.

"Oh! Um…it's hard to explain."

"Is it the same as loving your family?"

"Yes. No. Well, sort of. It's a lot stronger than loving your family."

"Why?"

"Because it's a single individual that you love, I guess. But no one really knows what love is like until they fall in love with someone, Lizzie. There's no use trying to explain it." She searched his eyes for a few minutes afterward, brightening at a thought.

"Are you in love Gregor?" One look told Gregor he had to answer truthfully.

"Yeah, Liz. I am." The revelation made Lizzie smile from ear to ear.

"Who is it? Does she love you back? Do I know her? Is she from the Underland or the Overland?" Gregor gave a weak laugh. Leave it to Lizzie to try and focus on the positive.

"Do you really want to know?" He teased. Her head bobbed up and down so fast that she became a blur.

"Do you really, really want to know?" He continued joking until she was bobbing so much she had to stop to take a breath.

"Okay, I'll tell you," Lizzie sat right up and looked at him pleadingly. "But you got to keep it a secret, alright?"

Lizzie nodded her head again, though much slower than earlier. Gregor knew he didn't really have to get her silence, seeing as his love for Luxa must've been so painstakingly obvious in the Underland and to his mom.

"She's from the Underland," Lizzie's eyes grew sad as Gregor said this. She knew that this meant that he would most likely never see her again. "You're actually very familiar with her," Lizzie's mind started to go a mile-a-minute, putting the pieces together. "I don't know if she loves me back, but I think she does."

Lizzie looked him in the eyes, the answer on her lips. "Luxa," They said at the same time. Lizzie seemed overjoyed. He even pulled out his picture, the last thing he had to remember her by.

"It's sort of like the movie Aladdin! The commoner fell in love with the princess! And you're Aladdin and she's Jasmine, except she's already a queen!" She had told him later that day. Gregor was glad that she was taking joy in this. He had managed to give her a smile afterward.

Boots was in a bad mood the rest of the day because she couldn't go see Temp. Gregor wished he could take her to see him, even if it was only for a few minutes. But he couldn't worry his mom like that. And it wasn't like she'd let them go willingly.

Gregor had considered running away to the Underland, but that would terrify his family and throw them into chaos, so he immediately dismissed the idea. He considered having Ripred scare his mom into letting him go back. He considered just telling her he was going to go back.

But all of the ideas ended with the same results. His mother in a panic and his family in chaos and Lizzie and Boots trying to follow him.

Gregor sulked at the dinner table. He didn't talk unless asked a question directly and ate his spaghetti in silence. His parents couldn't seem to stand it.

"Gregor, what is going on with you? You haven't spoken since…since…" His mother couldn't bring herself to even name it. "Anyway, I've only heard you talk to Boots or Lizzie, but you refuse to talk at dinner! What's going on? Did something happen at school?"

"I'm fine, Mom. Nothing happened at school."

Lizzie looked at him, begging him to tell his mom the truth. When Gregor silently told her he couldn't, she seemed to silently reply with "Either you tell her, or I will!"

He sighed and gestured for her to spill the beans.

"Gregor's in love!" She announced. His dad smiled, but his mom looked at him, slightly concerned and slightly happy.

"But-" His mom started to question, but Lizzie cut her off.

"She lives in the Underland," Lizzie stated. The whole table was silent. His mother had lost all color, and the nearly unnoticeable purple scars from when she had the plague seemed to stand out even more. His dad's smile faltered, but remained intact. Boots looked like she were about to scream again at the mention of the Underland, where Temp and Hazard were.

"And he's sad, because he'll probably never see her again because you're so afraid of the place," Lizzie seemed like she was going to continue and go into a full-depth conversation with their parents on why he was feeling depressed.

"That's enough, Lizzie," His voice was like steel, even to his own ears. Lizzie shut her mouth and continued eating. "I'm not hungry anymore."

With that, he pushed his chair away and stood up, shoving his hands into his pockets. But something fluttered out of it as he did so, landing right at his father's feet. His dad bent down and plucked it up off the ground, but Gregor was in such a steely state that he hadn't noticed his prized possession was missing.

He continued to his room, which had no privacy whatsoever, and climbed onto his bed and hiding under the covers, in hopes that no one would bug him.

Hours later, he reached his hand into his right pocket for the comfort of seeing her, even if it was just a photo, and found the picture of him and Luxa in the museum missing for the first time since dinner.

Sitting up faster than lightening striking, the covers of his bed were thrown off of him. He jumped out of his bed and dashed back to the dinner table, carefully retracing his steps. Gregor hadn't gone more than four steps away from the table when his father spoke up from the living room.

"Gregor, can you come here a minute? Your mother and I would like to talk," His dad called softly. Gregor looked at the clock to find that it was nearly midnight.

He moved into the living room and sat down on the couch, facing his parents standing across from him.

"Yes?" He said dully.

"Why didn't you tell us?" His mother asked before his dad could say anything else.

"Because I figured your reaction wouldn't be anything I wanted to hear. You guys want to move to Virginia and forget about the Underland entirely. Having your son in love with the Regalian Queen might've put a damper on your bright hopes that I'll forget everything and grow up not remembering."

That made his mom cry. He hated it when his mom cried. It just revealed again how unstable his family was.

"It's not like I'd ever feel at home in the Overland," He continued.

"Don't call it that!" His mother yelled in a whisper, but he ignored her.

"I'm a rager, I'm the Warrior, and I enjoy visiting the Underland!"

"Stop it!" His mother sobbed. Gregor knew he should stop, but he couldn't. If he didn't get out what he needed to say now, they'd never know the truth.

"I felt more at home with Luxa and the other Regalians than I'd ever felt here in the Overland!"

His mother sank to the chair behind her, sobbing audibly enough to wake Lizzie from her sleep. His father kneeled down and was trying to comfort his mother.

"What's going on?" She yawned, rubbing her eyes.

"Nothing, Liz," Gregor said softly. "Why don't you go on back to sleep, okay?"

Lizzie didn't move. Her eyes had landed on their sobbing mother. Instead of going back into her room, she ran to their mom and looked at her.

"Mom?" She asked feebly. "Are you…are you okay?"

His mother couldn't reply, she was so shaken with sobs. Gregor spotted his picture lying on the coffee table. He quickly grabbed it and stuffed it back into his pocket.

"Grace," His father's soothing voice said, "please, stop crying." But his mother didn't stop. She couldn't stop.

"M-My b-baby boy!" She managed to choke out before her body was wracked with fresh sobs. His father looked up at Gregor, his eyes showing disappointment and sadness. Gregor's eyes replied with a certain dullness and depressed feel that made his dad frown.

"You really love her, don't you, Gregor?" He asked his son.

"Yes. I do," Gregor said calmly, feeling as though he might cry himself. But Gregor knew that he wouldn't cry. He hadn't cried since Ares, his bond, died.

"Then why do you remain here? Go after her! Follow your heart, Gregor, and we'll support you no matter what you decide. We can't force you to stay, Gregor. But if you do go back, whether to live or for a visit, promise you'll have her come up her at least once for an Overland meal, okay?"

There was a mischievous twinkle in his dad's eyes that made Gregor smile before the words sunk in. His dad just told him that he could go live in Regalia. His dad just told him that he could live in the Underland.

His dad just told him, that he could see Luxa again.

Review, please? Should I continue it? Is it any good?

~*J.C*~