Alyssa had been fourteen when I had last seen her, and she looked so much older. I couldn't imagine what Dianite must be thinking, having last seen her when she was six. But I couldn't focus on that now.

"Are the others behind you?" I asked, looking back at the portal.

She nodded quickly. "Spark and Jeriah are coming, along with... a few others."

"A few others?" I looked up as Sparklez and Jericho's alternates stumbled through the portal, followed by Mianite, Ianite, the priest, and Champwan. "Why?"

"What is this?" Spark yelled upon entering. "And who is that?" He pointed to Dianite's metal figure.

"Oh... er, this is Dianite, everyone. He's been killed, so he needs to use a mech suit until we can revive him." I looked up at my god, but he was glaring at someone.

"Jeriah," he scowled. "Wish you had been left behind, but whatever."

Alyssa stepped between them and folded her arms. "Stop it. Jeriah is a friend. He's the one who took care of me when Mot abandoned me. So you can lay off him."

A pang of guilt surged through me, but Alyssa didn't seem to be mad at me. Nobody seemed to be, which was surprising. I had, technically, abandoned them and left them to die at the hands of their World Historian. Speaking of which...

"Did you guys meet someone called... the Shadows... where you were?" I asked hesitantly. I hoped they would look at me with confusion, and shake their heads, and I could feel slightly less guilty. But, alas, that was not the case.

My daughter's blood-red eyes staring right into mine, she said, in a stone cold voice, "Yes. We met the Shadows. He was lovely. I fell into one of his traps, and he held me as a prisoner for a month or two. Bella, the girl from my nightmares, was also being held prisoner. The two of us were tortured, and used to make the Shadows even more powerful than before. Then, he revived Dianite, and we all went to go kill the gods. As you can see, no god but Dianite ended up dying, but Redbeard did end up getting killed by the Shadows, and Spark almost joined him. After we fought that long battle, Bella ended up committing suicide. By the way, your portal reconstruction had perfect timing, because if you hadn't activated it, we would have been trapped in that realm to fight an endless war with a being that is much, much more powerful than us, and we all would have been wiped out eventually trying to fight him. So how have you been, here in Ruxomar?"

After that, I was incredibly shaken, and unable to enjoy the reunion fully. However, it was sweet to see all of the alternates meeting each other for the first time. Everyone seemed happy and light-spirited for a while.

Martha came running when she heard that Spark, her father, was back. Crying, she wrapped her arms around him and didn't let go for a very long time. Sparklez awkwardly walked over to introduce himself, and they quickly slipped into a long conversation about Ianite.

Jericho introduced himself to Jeriah, and Mianite came over to praise both of them on being loyal followers of his. I didn't tune in to that one for very long.

The two priests and two Champwans met up, and found that they looked identical. However, the priests quickly got into a (friendly) argument, and the Champwans had a duel with bows to see who was stronger. Champwan won.

Dianite brought Mianite and Ianite away from Ruxomar's Mianite, so he could have a talk with them alone. Having so many gods with the same names would get very, very confusing, I realized.

And, finally, Firefoxx came up to meet Alyssa. I had wanted my daughter to meet Andor, her childhood best friend, but he didn't seem to be nearby. The boy often disappeared without telling anyone where he was going, and I figured it was his way of dealing with all of the tragedies throughout his life. They must have taken a serious toll on him. He was only twenty.

"Hey, you must be my alternate," Firefoxx said, shaking Alyssa's hand. "I hear we have a lot in common."

"Do we?" she asked, looking excited and a little bit nervous. "I don't know much about you, except that you're on Team Mianite."

Firefoxx sighed. "I was definitely Team Mianite back in the realm you just came from, but I get ignored a lot here. I just try to do the right thing, in every situation. With the exception of the occasional prank." She winked at Alyssa.

My daughter laughed. "Maybe you could teach me how to prank people? It seems fun, but I never learned how."

Firefoxx looked delighted. "Oh, don't worry. I will be teaching you as much as I know." She grinned at me. "Mot, you better watch out."

"O deer," I answered, which was a phrase the sky people seemed to love.

"Hmm, what else should I ask you to start with? We can get to really know each other later on." Firefoxx thought for a second, and then brightened up. "I know! Do you like butts?"

"Foxx!" I yelled, making both of them laugh.

Alyssa grinned slyly. "Yeah, butts are pretty nice."

"Alyssa!" I scolded, which sent the pair into another fit of laughter.

I wish the reunion lasted forever, but there was a reason that I had brought all of them here. We needed to leave, and we needed to do it quickly, so World Historian couldn't get to us.

Dianite had abandoned the mech suit, since it would only prove as an obstacle while reviving himself. "We need to go. Now. There has already been an attack to try to prevent us from reviving me."

"Already?" I gasped, fearing that we were already too late.

"Dargon, my old friend, is guarding a portal to get to the place where my body is. Nobody is able to get through him to destroy the portal, so that isn't an issue. The problem is that someone, probably World Historian, has released about ten Withers and ten Ender Dragons in Urulu. They're destroying the town, and will kill us if we get anyway near the library," Dianite told us worriedly.

"I'm up for a fight," Ianite said, surprising me. "Ender Dragons are the animals of Ianite. I can stop them without much difficulty."

"Perfect," Dianite said. "But do you think all of us are ready for this? Most of you don't have armor, and I'm not sure that all of you are going to be able to handle the fight and the dangerous journey afterward." He was looking at Spark.

"I have a ton of spare armor in my ME system!" Sparklez said immediately, pulling out his blue key and vanishing into the spectre dimension.

"Spark, do you mind if I use my powers to make you young again?" Ianite asked. "It'll make this a lot easier."

He looked at her worriedly. "This whole battle thing has been a lot for you. Are you sure you have the energy to do this?"

"I'm fine, getting you through this journey is much more important." She sent a burst of violet light at him, and his features began to change instantly.

Sparklez returned from the spectre dimension, dumped all of the armor on the ground so we could choose what we wanted, and then looked up to see Spark, who now looked identical to him (with the exception of the color of their glasses).

"Looks like we're ready," Dianite said, letting out a satisfied sigh. "We better go now. Time is ticking."