Zeuceus muttered something in tongues quickly before the bondages broke, freeing me. In an instant two large ogers stood over me, forcing me up on shaky feet. Zeuceus glanced at me once then nodded as if he was agreeing with something then muttered once again in tongues. Soon after I slowly felt myself getting restored with strength. The rope burns disappearing without a trace that I almost thought I may have imagined it if it weren't for the blood that was drying on my wrists.

"I want it to be a fair fight. That way when you lose you would know it wasn't because you didn't have the strength to win. It was because you were to weak to begin with. It will solely be your fault."

I could only stare at him emotionless as I was escorted out of the room. I didn't dare look at my friends who kept yelling for me to look at them and stop what I was doing. I just kept walking.

I didn't bother to see where I was walking, I just stared dead ahead with my chin held up. Ever so often they would nudge me to go a certain way. When we finally stopped outside a room they opened the door and shoved me roughly inside, almost causing me to fall.

I turned to them, glaring as they slammed the door shut. I stared at the door, knowing that they had to be standing right outside it, just to make sure that I wasn't planning on escaping. It didn't matter though, I could easily take them both down without breaking a sweat. However, Zeuceus still had my friends and I wouldn't just leave them behind like that.

I knew they had already removed any weapons I may have had while I was knocked out but I still checked my boots anyways for my throwing knives. When I felt nothing I sighed, then took a look around the room for anything to help me but the room as far as I could tell, was empty.

Standing in the middle of the empty room, I wait for whatever it was I was waiting for when suddenly the wall in front of me slowly began to rise. Going towards it I duck before the rest of the archway could continue rising. My eyes squinted instinctively as I stepped out into the yellow dimmed lighting.

Each step I took I felt the crunch of the dirt that coated my shoes a red-brown color. I stopped after a few steps and slowly turned in a circle to get a good look of how many creatures were here.

Hundreds or maybe thousands of them were seated all around me on the arches, ready to see this fight of life or death. Some of them were standing, throwing their arms around while yelling at me. Yelling for my death.

"Settle down!" I watched as they all slowly grew silent, waiting for Zeuceus to speak. "Now we have waited many years for this moment now haven't we?" Everyone cheers in response.

I look at Zeucues and just beside him they're seated with rope tied against their wrists. A couple of benders and ogers sat beside them, just in case they decided to do something stupid like try to save me. Which knowing them they probably would actually.

As I glanced at their faces I noticed how they yelled at me in desperation but they were too high up for me to hear, especially with everyone booing at me. Zeuceus holds his hand and the noise stops abruptly. "Rose are you ready?"

I remain silent and slowly raise up my hand. Flipping him off.

"Bring out the other competitor." With a flick of his wrist, the wall in front of me began to slowly rise as a pair of goblins spun a heavy looking stone wheel. A minute later someone slowly stepped out from the dark, their hands instantly covering their eyes from the horrible lighting.

They were so far away from me that I could barely make out a human form. Oh god it's a bender isn't it? It has to be... And if that's true then I'm already dead.

My hands begin shaking in anticipation for the fight but I refused to show my nerves. Taking a deep breath I glance around me, hoping to find anything that could possibly help me in this fight. To my right I spy a sword hanging on the wall. Now maybe I have a chance, I'm good with a sword so this could work out in my favor. I turn towards the bender then slowly walked to the sword and grabbed it from the wall.

Then I see something peculiar. The bender grabs a sword as well from his side of the wall. Now why would a bender need a sword?

A sharp laughter pierces through the air of the arena. I look up at Zeucues. "Let the games begin!"

The crowd grows insane all around me. I look up at them one last time. They look so scared. I'll get them out of this. I know I will. Filled with determination I twirled my sword side to side. They have to survive. I don't give a rats ass if my competitor was a bender or not, they're dead.

I walk forward. They imitate me. They swing their sword in their hands and I do the same with mine.

Is it trying to play games with me?

Each step we take the crowd roars louder, a mixture of cheers and booing. The sounds of them infuriates me as well as unnerves me. Knowing that they are seating there, just watching and waiting for me to get killed.

Not one of them were rooting for me, I knew the cheers were for the bender as well as for the excitement of the game.

Now that I am more closer, my eyes adjusted to the body of the bender. I take a few more steps forward, not believing my own eyes, then stop dead in my tracks. So does he.

I rush forward and run faster than I've ever had before whilst griping onto my sword as if life depended on it. They reached me half way and we knocked against one another, crumpling to the floor. Our swords falling out of our hands to wrap around the other tightly... and we kiss because life depended on it.

Reluctantly we pulled away from each other gasping. His large hands cup my small face, his eyes greedily examining my own, almost as if he couldn't believe he could do so. His brown eyes focused on mine, a twinkle catching my own that made my heart burst in millions of pieces.

"Oh my god. It's you. It really is you!" I couldn't stop myself from crying. I don't think I've ever cried this much before... from complete and utter happiness.

I kiss him furiously as the tears continued falling down my face. "I love you- I love you so much-" I sob.

"I know, I know. I love you too." He hiccups, laughing as he hugs me tightly, like he was afraid that I would disappear at any given time.

"I thought you were dead..." He pulls back and stares at me silently. "What?" I ask.

"I thought you were dead! Well all thought that I mean-" he shakes his head. "We all thought you were the one who died."

"We?" He nods and looks out into the crowd then points. I turn and follow his arm and there I see them. My team! Alive! Lee, Chris, Hannah and Tori. They were here. With tears falling down their eyes as they stare back at me.

"Oh my god." I hiccup. I smile at them and they do too. "But I saw you guys die! You died right in front of my eyes!"

"You didn't watch your friends die." We turn at his voice. "Who you saw die in front of you were shapeshifters. They shifted into your friends when we separated you into different rooms... Who you saw die, was them."

All these years of pain and misery was because of him! I thought they had died! I had carried this burden with me for five years! Believing that they had died and not being able to tell their parents the truth! Hearing their screams of agony for five years! Waking up from nightmares of their blood mixing in with one another's on the floor... their screams... the sounds their bodies made as they were being gutted...

And it was all fake.

"I recorded it and showed them the tape, leaving out the part where you escaped."

"We thought you died afterwards." I turn to Daniels familiar brown eyes.

I knew Zeuceus must have restored some of Daniels strength and health for this fight as he had done for me but I still noticed how his tanned skin looked yellow from not seeing the sun for so many years. Not to mention how he had lost some weight. Not major weight but still enough for me to notice and for my heart to ache. His hair had grown out, it wasn't spikey anymore like he used to have it back in elementary school days, but instead it reached his eyes. He also needed to shave for a small stubble on his chin was beginning to form, making him appear more older than he actually was. But he couldn't be anymore perfect in my eyes.

"So there you have it. My master plan." Zeuceus smirks. "Now the games must continue... After all that's why we're here. Let the fighting commence. Oh and in case you need some motivation, don't forget you both are fighting for something of great value to you."

"Daniel, you are fighting for you and your teams freedom and Rose you are fighting for your friends freedom." He waves at them. They look confused more than ever. Probably not sure on how to even react.

After all they believed my team was dead just a second ago. Hell I thought they were dead!

"You have to fight."

"What? Are you crazy I can't fight you? I won't." Daniel shakes his head.

"Don't think of this as a fight to the death." I laugh bitterly. "Think of it as if we're back in head quarters and we're training." I pause, and say more seriously. "We have to fight."

He gazes at my face for a moment longer then nods his head reluctantly. I press my forehead to his and closed my eyes. Letting myself marvel over the fact that he was alive.

I squeeze my eyelids harder as I kiss him softly on the lips one last time while I blindly reach for one of the swords off the ground. When my fingers touch the handle of the sword, my palm tightens around it and without hesitation I thrust it towards Daniel's direction.

He barely blocks it in time with his own, the vibration of the swords connecting making my arm shake. We both quickly get up and circle each other.

The crowd appeared to yell louder now, hyped up by the action. I take a deep breath, trying to ignore them as I focus on Daniel, waiting for him to attack. No matter what, he always does first. And when he steps forward I bring down my sword and block his attack, already ready for it.

I push him forward making him stumble back but he quickly recovers, turning towards the side, the action almost making me fall forward. I catch myself and look up. My friends are all yelling at me but I couldn't hear them with all the noise. I watched as Grace points at something behind me, then everyone else quickly following suit.

Understanding what they are trying to say, I duck as a sword slashes the air my head just was only moments before.

Not wasting my opportunity, I turn and butt the hilt of my sword to his side. I see him move to grip his side, taking a few step backwards and I quickly stick out my foot making him fall flat on his back.

I lunge at him but he only rolls to the side and stands over me. I quickly roll from under him and come face to face with his sword on the ground, inches from my face. I kick his leg out and roll to my side as he falls face first on the dirt. Before he could recover I flipped him around quickly and got on top of him so I was straddling him. I grab his sword next to him and skid it across the floor, away from reach. I grab a fist of his hair and lift his head up, resting the blade of my sword on his neck.

"Finish him!" Zeucues yells somewhere behind me but I couldn't pay attention to anything around me. Not even the screams of the beasts thirsty for blood.

Instead I could only stare down at Daniel panting. Sweat, trickling down his forehead so slowly that I could catch it with my finger. I could feel as he leans deeper into the blade, wanting me to win. Wanting me to live.

I pull the blade farther away from his neck, not prepared to do so just yet. I lean forward to him until I was only inches away from his ear.

"Routine six." I whisper. He suddenly thrusts his hips to the side, catching me off guard as I thud to the floor. My sword clattering on the ground a few inches away from me. Grabbing it I make sure I had a good grip on it as I slash it out in front of me and block his next blow.

I move to roll to my side but he only grabs me by the hips and lays me flat on the ground and straddles me down. He smirks. "You know if we weren't fighting to the death this would actually be fun."

"Yeah just like old times-" I lash out with my sword but he quickly blocks it and sends my sword flying high into the air. The crowd quiets at this but as soon as I punch Daniel hard in his face taking him by surprise they begin yelling once again.

I use Daniels surprise as an advantage and push him off of me and get on my knee, holding out my hand. The sword falling right into it. I grip the handle tightly.

The whole crowd is going crazy now. Daniel looks at me and smiles. "Oh yeah, just like old times." I stand up and run to the wall on my left side. I jump on the wall and without a second thought jump to my left where a pair of hands are already there to hoist me up.

The crowd quickly disperses in surprise but it'll only take a couple of seconds before they launch into action. I run up the steps killing creatures that were too slow to get out of the way in time, and reached them. They hold out their chains immediately and I slash down with my sword breaking them each one by one.

As soon as his chains broke free, Lee stands up and grabs my sword from my hand. "Well nice to see you too sweet cheeks!" He winks at me with his almond shaped brown eyes. I smile.

"Don't just stand there! Get them!" Zeucues orders.

"Unchain my friends and help them down into the arena!" Lee nods and runs into the crowd killing anyone in his way. "The rest of you follow me!" I run down the steps and jump back into the arena.

Daniel hands me his sword and looks around at the chaos that awaits us. "How do we get out of here?" He asks.

I point ahead of us. I had noticed it before but I didn't pay much attention to it until now. "That thing helps lift up the cage. Daniel, I want you and Chris to hold it open long enough for us to enter then hurry up and get your asses inside. The thing falls down fast so I would say you only have about 15 seconds to make it."

"Only?" Chris snorts. "We don't need 15 seconds." He smirks. "Let's go Danny boy."

He rolls his eyes at his nickname then takes off with Chris towards the contraption. "Girls we'll stay here and fight off any of the creatures that are stupid enough to come down here."

"You got it!" We shift so we were facing away from each other and formed a triangle. We look around to see if anything comes down. Lucky enough for us there was. We move away from each other and fight. I slash out at a nightcrawler and once I'm done I turn to Hannah.

I scream her name, and after a clean punch she turns to me. Her dirty blonde hair bellowing in the wind as I throw the sword to her. Without a second thought she raises her arms and catches the sword. After she gets a good enough grasp of it she takes off the head of the zombie she was fighting in a single arc then throws it.

"Tori!" I watch as Tori merely steps aside, letting the sword hit the chest of the oger. She removes the sword from it's chest once it falls and we all turn to each other, smirking.

"Still got it." Lee laughs. I turn at his voice and run to my friends.

Trevor was the first one to reach me, wrapping his arms around my waist, lifting me up. I jumped on him, my legs wrapping around his torso. Soon enough everyone else hugged me from either side.

"Don't ever fucking scare us like that again you dumb bitch!" I laugh.

"I love you too Casey! Now get off you guys we gotta go!" They quickly let go and finally Trevor is that last to let go of me.

"Hi nice to meet all you beautiful wonderful people but we need to go." Hannah points up. I follow her finger and see Zeucues looking mad as ever as he nears us.

"Right. Come on!" We rush forward to the door.

"Nice of all of you to make it." Chris grunts as they hold the door open. We all rush inside.

"Get in here!" I yell. Suddenly the door is going down. Then they are in my line of vision as they slide in right when the door thuds to the ground.

"What now?" Lee asks. I turn to the door I entered in.

"Sword?" I hold out my hand. "Okay everyone step back." I say once I get the sword. I slam the blade down on the door knob and kick the door open.

"Now we run." We run down the passageway. I turn left, right, then right again until we were right back into the tunnels. I look each way then decide to go straight ahead.

"Do you know where you're even going?" Tyler asks.

"Uh yeah." As soon as I know where we are exactly, then yeah I'll know where I'm going.

I turn left and then suddenly we are in the room where I killed the shape shifter. The body and bloody message, still there from our last visit.

"Still one for the theatrics." Daniel raises his brow at me.

The message had read 'I'm coming for you next Zeuceas.' I was definitely one for the theatrics.

Anyways now that I know where we were going, it made things a lot easier to navigate. We couldn't possibly go to the last few safe houses we been since we've raided it, so we kept going farther. We turn right when finally we ran into trouble. About twenty creatures were blocking our path.

I smile at them. "Well won't this be fun?" My team steps forward next to me. "Attack!" We charge at them and take them on.

I fought off a shape shifter with Chris, then after a zombie, a warlock, and an oger. They were all dead in a matter of minutes. Chris and I fist bump each other, smiling. "Let's keep moving!" Without any complaints, my team rushed forward as I said.

I glanced back behind me, towards my friends as they gapped at their retreating figures, then at me. "Come on guys." They shake their heads and immediately jogged up with us.

After a few more turns we had finally made it. I quickly put my hand in the wall where it opens up. We run inside and once everyone was in I kick the wall closed behind us.

The floor opens up to reveal the safe room. "Kids first." My friends quickly climb the ladder down. Then everyone else jumps in. I'm the last one to jump in but once I am I'm being hugged to death and lifted off my feet.

"I missed you." I stare down at Lee, smiling. He smiles back, revealing his perfectly straight teeth. His almond brown eyes crinkling in the corners. I rub his fluffy black hair and laugh.

"I missed you too you dork."

"Stop hogging her!" Hannah nudges Lee. He sets me back down and let's go of me then Tori rushes into my arms.

"Bitch!" Hannah glares her light blue eyes at Tori's small figure.

Tori ignored her anyways, burying her brown long hair into the crook of my neck. She then stops and steps back poking her tongue at Hannah which she chooses to roll her eyes at.

She's about to hug me when Chris rushes forward, his black curly short hair bobbing slightly as he swoops into my arms. His light skinned arms wrapping around my waist, twirling me around.

"Oh my god I'm going to fucking kill all of you. I swear I am."

"I missed you! Don't ever leave me alone with them again!" He sets me down on my feet so I was now looking up at his gorgeous green eyes.

"And you don't ever leave me alone again!" I hug him harder. Pulling back slightly I play with what little goatee he had. "Aw you finally got to grow your facial hair! Look who's all grown up!"

He rolls his eyes at me but smiles either way. Just then Hannah pulls Chris off of me and hugs me tightly.

"Finally I get to hug you! These selfish people." She glares at my team as she backs away from me.

Suddenly they all clear their throats very obnoxiously. "Now I'm sure a certain someone would like to hug you and kiss you and make love to you-"

"All night long-"

"In bed-"

"In the bathroom-"

"Against the wall-"

"Oh will you all cut it out! You're embarrassing him!" Tori laughs.

"Oh and the table-"

"Oh shut up." Daniel laughs, his face was entirely red as he steps forward to me. Looking at me sheepishly.

"Oh but that's all you ever talked about," Hannah teased.

"If only I could have had that one night with Rose that we dreamt of having."

"Where I'll kiss her sweet, sweet lips-"

"Oh Rose- my Rose!" Lee and Chris moan simultaneously, their hands against their hearts. They all laugh when they see him turn an ever darker shade of red.

I smile and walk up to Daniel. "Oh is that so?"

"You were all he ever talked about."

"Rose liked the sun-"

"Rose liked the moon-"

"Rose liked roses-"

"Oh shut up!" He glares at them. I grab his hot, red face with my cool hands.

"I missed you most of all."

"Hey!" They shout in protest. I ignored them and leaned in, kissing him. He responds back immediately.

We break off the kiss when we hear someone clear their throat. "You guys can finish that in the bedroom later but right now I would like to talk to my best friend!" Lee grabs my arm.

"What? She would rather talk to me! Her real best friend!" Chris grabs my other arm. The girls both grab my stomach from the back.

"You guys are idiots! She wants to talk to us!"

"I feel so loved." I say as I'm being tugged side to side and backwards like I'm the rope of tug of war.

"Rose?" I look behind Daniel, at Trevor. They all immediately stopped playing around and let go of me. Realizing for the first time that we weren't alone.

I walked beside Trevor and Zach, my arms wrapping around their shoulders. "Guys I would like you all to meet my friends." I smile brightly. My team walks up silently and look at them curiously.

"This is Grace, Casey, Zach, Tyler, Fred, and Trevor." I point at them.

"Guys this is my team." I smile. "That's Lee, Chris, Tori, Hannah, and Daniel."

"Nice to meet you guys." Hannah says brightly as usual.

"I don't know how you guys could stand being friends with her." Chris scrunches up his nose.

"You just said-" he waves me off.

"See she just loves to talk and talk." I gap at him. He laughs. "Kidding! Kidding!" He holds his hands out in surrender.

"Um it's nice to meet you guys too." Fred smiles. Immediately they all start chatting casually, all besides Trevor who was the only one who remained next to me quietly.

I pull him aside knowing very well something was off. "What's wrong?"

"I don't get why you've never told me any of this." He waves his hand. "You kept all of this a secret from me. I'm supposed to be your best friend Rose. We tell each other everything yet you kept all of this a secret from me? I didn't even know you were in love!" I look around to see if anyone heard Trevor. They did.

I smile at everyone awkwardly as I grab Trevor's hand and pulled him into the kitchen to talk privately.

"Trev if I told you all of this would you have believed me?" He stays silent. "Would you?"

"I don't know!" He says exasperated. "I mean it explains why you were so defensive whenever we brought your team up but-"

"But nothing. You know now and that's what matters right?" He slowly nods his head.

"Good." I smile. "Come on they're probably waiting for us." We walk out the kitchen and everyone was silent as we enter.

"I think we all need to talk and answer some questions that are still left unanswered." They all nod their heads, instantly agreeing but only Daniel doesn't do so. Instead he stood silently amongst the others, staring between Trevor and I.

________________________________End of Chapter 16

YES THEY ARE ALIVE! ROSE TEAM IS STILL ALIVE! Which also means new characters!

I understand there's not much description going on of the new set of characters but not to worry the next chapter will surely answer the questions you may have!

What do you guys think is going to happen next?

How are your feeling with everything that has happened? Am I messing with your shippings? Who do you ship?

Also I'm going to see Lana Del Rey perform live along with Lorde, Imagine Dragons, Paramore, and other cool bands! I'm so excited! What are some of your favorite songs by the bands I just mentioned?