Chaos consumed the group as each slinger wrestled with their aggressive ammo. Eli had to push Banger into his backpack and quickly clip it shut before loading Doc.

"Cure them, Doc!" he called, firing the Boon Doc down at where Alana's Rammstone- now a Grimmstone- was chasing after Bluster.

Doc transformed in a flash and released a burst of healing energy, bathing the small clearing in pale green light before returning to protoform. Alana sighed with relief as the ghouls transformed back into slugs, and her head cleared enough that she was able to regain her balance and scoop up her Rammstone, Sarge.

"What hap-"

Another wave of dark energy cut her off. Alana watched in horror as her Rammstone writhed and turned back into a Grimmstone with a small flash of red light, the other previously ghouled slugs following suit.

"Why didn't it work?!" Trixie exclaimed, watching in dismay as the new ghouls scattered into the forest, abandoning their slingers.

"I dunno- Alana, you try!" Eli urged. Alana nodded and cupped her hands around her Rammstone, pouring light energy from her palms to cure him like she'd done with so many ghouls before.

When the blue light surrounded him, Sarge turned back into a Rammstone. But the second Alana stopped actively providing the energy, he shook and reghouled again.

"I can't just keep that up forever!" she groaned in frustration, wincing when Sarge tried to lunge at the Aquabeek in her bandoleer and pushing him into her backpack. "I don't know why it isn't working! Even with Blakk's megamorphs, we could always cure them!"

"Something is terribly wrong," Junjie said, exchanging a concerned, but knowing, glance with Eli. "We need to see if the rest of your caverns are being affected in the same way."

"You guys go, I'll stay back with Alana and we'll meet you there," Trixie said. She hovered near Alana worriedly, as if she was going to keel over again.

"I'm fine," Alana insisted as the gang made their way back up to the hideout, the boys leading the way while she caught her breath. She then proceeded to almost faceplant after tripping over a root sticking up from the ground.

"Right," Trixie deadpanned, steadying her friend and ushering her along after the boys. "What's going on? Have you ever felt anything like this?"

Alana shook her head, which was luckily clearing up after the initial rush of dark energy.

"No. Well, not at once. It... it almost feels like how things were when Blakk was making serious progress with ghouls," she realized out loud.

It did feel hauntingly familiar as her senses settled. She could feel the dark energy as if it was on the periphery of her senses, an infection spread throughout all of Slugterra. After so many months without Blakk's ghouls, she'd forgotten what it felt like to be aware of dark energy spread throughout the realm. This was similar to that, but there was nothing that she could think of that could have made Slugterra's energy go from perfectly fine to this in a matter of seconds.

Trixie must have thought the same, because she frowned, raising an eyebrow.

"It took so long for Blakk to hit that point, though. Was everything fine when you woke up this morning?"

"Yeah, everything felt normal," Alana assured. "I know there's probably still stray ghouls from Gateway out there, but there shouldn't be anything strong enough that I could actually feel it like this again."

"That's..." Trixie trailed off, trying to find a word that could somehow describe the odd situation the gang had found themselves in. "Concerning."

"You said it," Alana mumbled, taking deep breaths as she started to mentally prepare herself for what was surely about to be a long day. She and Trixie reached the hideout's back door, which had swung shut a few moments before when the guys had filed in. "I just hope- WHOA!"

Trixie ducked down and yanked Alana with her as a red, jagged piece of crystal flew toward them. It embedded in the hideout wall right where Alana's torso had just been a second before.

The offending ghouled Geoshard let out a vicious giggle before hopping away. Other ghouls ran amok throughout the hideout. Attacknets spat pale green webs everywhere, trapping some of the smaller slugs. Two Sand Manglers had created a small pit of quicksand in front of the TV, and the ghouled Crystalyd drilled up through the couch, looking around and giggling before diving back into what Alana could only assume was an impressive tunnel system.

A cold pain pricked at Alana's temples, but it was nothing compared to the dizzying effects of Blakk's terraportal. She'd survive. The dread forming in the pit of her stomach was more concerning. It felt like the first time she'd seen Dark Bane, at Blakk's citadel: a primal urge to run and hide, because of some terrible and old threat.

There was no time to dwell on it, though- not when nearly a fifth of their slugs had been spontaneously ghouled.

"What's the news, Eli?" Alana called across the hideout, scooping up a Slyren fleeing a Harmashelt and carefully dodging the chaos to get over to Eli. Junjie stood by him as well, his expression unreadable and Kord and Pronto tried to herd the ghouls together.

Eli shook his head from where he stood in front of the holodesk, frantically moving the cursor around a map of the 99 Caverns and hovering over red circles that signified distress calls.

"It's not just us. Slugs are turning ghoul all over the 99," he reported, clicking on one of the pulsing red circles. "And it looks like it's all the same types of slug, too. Rammstones, Armashelts, Geoshards, Arachnets, all those."

A video feed popped up from the circle he clicked. Alana gasped at the sight of Quartermain Cavern, a usually stable rocky terrain home to several towns of cave trolls, in complete disarray as a landslide wove through the cavern. The towns in the cavern were few and far between- maybe only three total- but Alana watched as two of them were caught in the landslide's path. Rocks and thick mud swallowed up sidewalks and mechas, and climbed halfway up the walls of homes. Cave trolls and a handful of human and molenoids took shelter on rooftops. Some of them were batting away Grimmstones and Harmashelts.

"If that mud river rises any further, the townspeople could drown," Junjie said bluntly, glancing over at Eli. "There is chaos across the caverns, but Quartermain may be the best place to start."

"I agree," Eli said, unhooking a tablet extension from the holodesk and turning to face the rest of the gang. "Everyone gear up- I'll reach out to some of our allies, but I have a feeling they're gonna be tied up with their own caverns. We don't have a Quartermain contact, so we'll go there. That's where things seem to be the worst. Hopefully we can get some answers."

He paused and looked at Junjie.

"Are you feeling up for a fight?"

Junjie nodded instantly, and Alana was reminded that even though Junjie wasn't in his realm, he was still completely in his depth as a protector.

"Of course. I would be honored to accompany you five," the Eastern champion responded. Eli nodded and turned to the others.

"Alright, let's move!"

The others nodded and started to head out into the garage. Alana started to follow, but Eli quickly reached a hand out on her shoulder.

"Alana, hold on."

She stopped in her tracks, looking at Eli with confusion. He looked- well, for lack of a better term, scared. He sighed and lowered his hand.

"Just... if this keeps happening and more slugs are ghouled, you need to let us know if you can't keep going."

It seemed like there was more he wanted to say, but there wasn't time to sit around and chat. They had a job to do.

"I will," Alana promised. "I'll be okay for a while. This is bad, but it's not Lightwell bad."

Eli looked like he wanted to argue, which took Alana off guard, but then he smoothed his expression and nodded.

"Right."

The two rushed out to meet the rest of the gang, jumping up on their mechas and riding out of the garage. Alana vacantly remembered how just an hour ago she was calmly eating breakfast without a care in the world.

"Quartermain is a bit of a ride," Eli called from the front of the group. "Once we've got some more open space, we'll-"

He suddenly slammed on his brakes, the rest of the gang following suit, as small clouds of black and green formed on the path in front of them. The dark particles condensed and several Shadow Clan materialized, including the Clan's leader. He looked over the gang warily, his gaze lingering on Junjie. The Eastern champion met his gaze confidently.

Pronto scowled from behind Alana.

"This won't be good," he hissed quietly.

"Let's find out," Eli sighed. He unclipped the shadow talker circlet from where it attached around the bottom of his orange backpack.

He longer flinched when he put the shadow talker on, taking its effects in stride. He rode Lucky up to the Shadow Clan leader, glancing at the four others he'd brought with him. One had a jagged scar over their eye, which was clouded and gray.

"We must take you and your slingers to our village near Xanadu Basin at once," the leader hissed, his tail thrashing.

"What did he say?" Pronto whispered to Alana. She would usually translate these conversations so Eli could focus on talking with the Shadow Clan, but surprisingly, Junjie beat her to the punch.

"He says we must go at once to their village, near a 'Xanadu Basin,'" he said.

Alana gaped, and Trixie just laughed quietly a shook her head.

"You speak Shadow Cla- oh, of course you speak Shadow Clan," Kord sighed. Junjie raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I understand it, but to my knowledge no human can speak-"

Trixie interrupted, looking at the map on her mecha's dashboard.

"Xanadu would take us two days on mecha," she reported. "The terrain is too unstable to go any faster."

"We can't go," Eli agreed. "Slugs are being spontaneously ghouled all over the caverns. We're on our way to Quartermain-"

"We are aware of the situation in the 99," the leader interrupted. When he said it, he looked directly at Alana with something akin to condolence.

It wasn't unusual to be looked at by the Shadow Clan with confusion or disdain, but genuine pity somehow felt far worse.

"I am confident you will change your mind when you hear the message from your father," the leader finished.

Luckily, Junjie continued his quiet translation, because Alana felt like her mecha had disappeared from under her with how quickly her stomach dropped.

She rode Midnight forward a few steps, locking eyes with Eli. He hesitated for a moment before turning back to the Shadow Clan.

"'If the glyph glows, call the son,' so said Will Shane, the leader said somberly. You must come with us now. These caverns may have little time."

Alana's mind was reeling. She knew Will had left a message for Eli in the form of a letter on the surface, but he'd never mentioned anything else. To think that there was still a new piece of him left behind was both exciting and saddening.

"Alright. But we don't have two days to spare," Eli explained.

The Shadow Clan leader looked amused. He reached behind his torso and grabbed a black and green sphere from his back that Alana recognized as a shadow walker.

"We have a solution for that. Instruct your slingers to brace themselves," he said.

Eli's eyes widened, but he quickly relayed the message. Trixie hurriedly grabbed her camera, mounting it on her mecha next to Boomer's head and setting it to record. Alana's heart pounded in her head as the Shadow Clan, instead of pressing a button on the sphere, threw the shadow walker into the air.

Green light encircled the sphere, spreading through the air like ink in water. Pronto let out a shriek as gravity seemed to lose its hold on the Shane Gang. Their mechas began to float a few inches off the ground.

Alana wasn't sure how to feel, tightly holding onto Midnight as her hair rose up around her head like she was underwater. The Shadow Clan had the decency to look at least a little apologetic at the slingers' confusion, but Alana only caught a glimpse of them for a second before a sudden flash of green covered her vision-

And then she was falling, or floating, or the world was falling out from around her? She wasn't sure. Everything was a green and black blur around her, a swirling spiral of colors that vaguely reminded her of the terraportal the Dark Slinger's marauders made in Gateway. The others fell around her, all of them yelling frantically, including Junjie. Later, Alana was sure she'd find the memory funny, but at the moment, seeing the usually stoic slinger looking panicked did nothing to make her feel better about the situation.

And then gravity reclaimed its hold on the slingers, and she was definitely falling this time. The green glow faded away to the shadowy forests of the Dark Periphery, and the Shane Gang was unceremoniously dumped onto the cool dirt and stone ground of a wide clearing.

Somehow, Alana managed to stay on Midnight, but the wolf mecha was splayed out on its stomach with all four legs sticking out. Alana was thrown across the dashboard, her arms wrapped around Midnight's neck. Her head spun and her stomach churned, but she seemed better off than Pronto, who weakly crawled away from Fernando and upended his breakfast.

"Is everyone okay?" Eli asked shakily, stumbled away from where Lucky was stuck on its side. He stumbled a few times and paused, resting his hands on his knees and taking deep breaths.

"My stomach is inside out," Trixie groaned. Alana slid down from Midnight and helped pull the redhead up off the ground. "Never again."

Kord helped tug Pronto up off the ground, and Eli went over to Junjie, who was pale and clutching his stomach.

"You good, Jun?" he asked, reaching out a hand. Junjie took it, nodding and straightening his crooked armor.

"Yes, I will be, thank you," he said. "Forgive my shrieking- I do not think any training could have prepared me for that."

The Shadow Clan leader, after carefully avoiding the mess that Pronto had spit up, stepped forward toward Eli.

"Right," the Shane said, straightening out the shadow talker. "My dad's message?"

The Shadow Clan leader held out his tail. At the end of it was a Fandango, who waved at the slugslingers before hopping down onto the ground. Alana watched with wide eyes as the red and teal slug raised its small arms. A pale glow consumed the slug before spreading out around it, covering the ground in a few foot radius around the slug. She could feel the slug energy seep into the ground like water.

A faint rumble shook the ground as the glyphs carved into the stone around the gang glowed pale green. A circular slab of stone at the center of the clearing slid into the ground, and a platform raised up to take its place. It resembled an ornate obelisk, made of black metal and decorated with green Shadow Clan glyphs. It rotated as it rose, and panels at the top unlatched and opened like a flower.

Around the leader, the other Shadow Clan held up their own Fandangos, who released a final small burst of energy. Alana was glad they hadn't asked her to do it- if the ghouling kept up, she was going to need all the energy she could get.

With the added surge of energy, a final panel on the obelisk swung open. The gang waited with baited breath for something just as mysterious or ancient-looking, but instead they were met with a cheerful chirp as an Enigmo slug popped up from within the obelisk. When she caught sight of the gang, she waved excitedly, and the movement caused her to lose her balance and fall from the top of the obelisk. Luckily, she recovered quickly, looking unphased as she hopped toward the gang.

Eli laughed and crouched down on one knee.

"Another Enigmo!" he exclaimed. Mo emerged from his backpack, his eyes widening at the sight of another slug of the same breed. He chirped happily and hopped down, approaching the new Enigmo.

"I can't believe it," Trixie marveled. "I thought we had the only one! They're so cute- oh, ouch."

She winced as Mo collided head-on with the new Enigmo. The two fell to the ground, temporarily dazed, but giggling the whole way. Pronto scoffed and kicked at the ground.

"Bah. I'm cuter," he grumbled. Alana couldn't help but snort out a laugh, shaking her head at the molenoid. The Shadow Clan leader looked amused, gently scooping up the new Enigmo while Mo retreated back to Eli. Eli got to his feet, looking up at the Shadow Clan with confusion.

"Why would my dad leave one for us?" he asked. "Not sure a fusion is gonna help right now."

The leader held out an arm in response, pointing to the opposite end of the clearing. Eli raised an eyebrow, but nodded and walked over to where he was directed.

"I recognize that slug, but they are particularly rare in the East," Junjie noted. "I have never used one, nor am I familiar with their uses."

"They let you see the auras of slugs," Alana explained. "But you need to be hit by one. Oh- I bet Eli's about to get slugged, actually."

Sure enough, the Shadow Clan grabbed the Enigmo in his tail once Eli was in position.

"Floppers," Eli sighed when he realized what was about to happen, bracing himself for the impact.

"Man, if I'd known that's what they were gonna do, I coulda volunteered to slug him," Kord joked quietly. Trixie elbowed him, but she was snickering too as the Shadow Clan reared his tail back and flung it forward.

The Enigmo transformed and raced toward Eli, releasing a blinding flash of white light when it made contact with him. Alana winced and covered her eyes, waiting until she could no longer see the white through her eyelids before looking and blinking spots from her eyes.

A faint white dome of light enveloped Eli, the gang, and the Shadow Clan. The leader stepped forward, unphased by the dome.

"We will leave you to the message, and trust that it holds the solution to our problem. It is.... not for our ears," he said carefully. "We will go, and do what we can to tend to the ghouls plaguing the caverns. We are not used to making ourselves so known, but we will try to gather the ghouls to prevent further damage to the caverns."

He glanced over at Alana, his eyes still holding that pity from before at the hideout. It made her skin crawl. He looked back at Eli before speaking.

"If anyone from your group needs to step away from the path ahead, they are welcome to join us. We cannot risk shadow traveling you further- it relies on the stable energy of the caverns," he explained. "Should things continue to escalate, it may do more than just upset your stomachs. Stick to traditional travel. We wish you luck."

Alana frowned when the leader mentioned leaving whatever fight was ahead. He'd looked away from her, but it definitely felt targeted at her specifically. The leader bowed his head and stepped away, out of the dome of light, before disappearing in a shadow of green sparks.

"Wait, aren't you- ugh," Eli sighed, his shoulders sagging as the gang was left alone in the Dark Periphery. "What-"

Eli was cut off by particles of light suddenly leaving the dome, coagulating in the air above him and forming a familiar silhouette. As if Alana hadn't felt the sensation enough already today, her stomach dropped. The 3D image of Will Shane came into focus.

Burpy chirped happily from Eli's shoulder, but Eli looked as thrown off as Alana was to see the image of Will instead of something like a letter.

"Dad?" he breathed, staring up at the hologram in wonder. Pronto cleared his throat, stepping to Eli's side.

"Ah, Eli, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but that is not your father. It is a hologram," the molenoid said matter-of-factly.

Pronto's need to clarify that fact shook both Eli and Alana out of their shocked stupor, and Alana huffed out a laugh and rolled her eyes as Eli nodded.

"Ah, gotcha. Thanks, Pronto," he said, giving Pronto a finger gun.

"Any time, Pronto the Magnificent is always happy to help," Pronto said, pleased with himself for clearing that up. Trixie facepalmed beside Alana, but looked back up at the hologram when it began to speak.

"Eli. I've recorded this message in the hopes that you never hear it," Will began.

Alana's throat tightened. It may be a recording, sure, but this wasn't some video from years ago that she had watched dozens of times to keep herself from forgetting him. This was something new, and it wasn't the same as the real thing, but still, she was hearing Will Shane say something new for the first time in six years.

She glanced at Eli, but his gaze was purely fixed on the image of his father. His eyebrows knit together and his shoulders sagged as Will continued.

"By now, you are the Shane, and I'm no longer here for you. I imagine we've had some amazing adventures together, and I'm sure that you've made me proud of the man that you've become," Will said, smiling wistfully. "By now, I've taught you about all the different slugs that exist in the 99 Caverns."

"I wish you had," Eli murmured quietly.

"But there weren't always so many types of slugs," Will continued. He raised his hand and a circular symbol formed above his palm. "Long ago, there were only the Five."

He raised his hand and the symbols expanded. It featured a white star in the center, surrounded by five small circles, each with a different colored symbol. The circle itself was bordered by pale green glyphs, similar to those that decorated the obelisk the Enigmo had emerged from.

"Earth, Air, Energy, Water, and Fire. Every slug that exists today came from these five Elementals," Will explained. As he listed off the different elements, each corresponding symbol expanded into a crude depiction of what appeared to be slugs.

"What?" Trixie breathed, glancing over at Alana, who shrugged. She'd never heard of an Elemental slug, from Will or from anywhere else.

"If anything were to happen to an Elemental, something terrible would befall any of the slugs related to it," Will said grimly. The depiction of the Earth Elemental, a brown slug with large horns, turned red in response. Alana's heart sank.

"That has to be what happened to the slugs," Trixie noted. "The Earth Elemental must have been ghouled, and it spread to all the other Earth slugs."

It made sense to Alana, but the thought was terrifying. All it would take was ghouling five slugs, and every slug in the 99 Caverns would be ghouled? And if this was happening here, what was happening in the East, in Junjie's home? Or the West, assuming it was even still standing?

Someone could do in hours what Blakk hadn't been able to do in years. And they had already started.

"If you're hearing this message, something terrible has already occurred to one of the Elementals. Together, they hold incredible ancient power. That's why they were scattered across the 99 Caverns generations ago," Will said stoically. "You must cure whatever has been done to them and gather the Elementals together. Only then can the damage to Slugterra be undone."

"Wait, this-" Eli began, but the prerecorded message continued.

"This map will lead you to where the Five are hidden," Will said. A green holographic map of the 99 Caverns descended down around the Shane Gang. Will held up the Enigmo who'd emerged from the obelisk. "The map, as well as this recording, are stored within this Enigmo slug. Sorry, but someone will have to slug you every time you want to use it."

The mood had definitely shifted, and this time Kord didn't make a comment about gladly volunteering for the task, although Pronto muttered something about having to withstand such indignities to save the world. Alana wasn't sure. Everything else had long since fallen away as she watched the message with stinging eyes.

"Only you can access the map, Eli, by supplying answers to questions you and I share. Just request the location of a particular Elemental, and I'll ask you a password question. I wish I could do more to help you, son. I believe in you. If Alana isn't already on her way, contact her. Even if Evanlyn isn't around anymore to take care of things at their home, the Elementals are the top priority. Good luck, Eli."

Alana let out a shaky sigh, wrapping her arms around her stomach at the sound of her name from Will's voice and the mention of her mother. With a final somber glance forward, Will's holographic form fizzled out, leaving the gang surrounded by the green glow of the map.

"Wait, Dad," Eli stammered desperately, wilting as the form of his father dissolved.

Pronto started up again about it being a hologram and not the real Will Shane, but before he could get more than a few words in, Kord cuffed him over the top of the head.

"This is... wow," Trixie breathed, running a hand through her bangs. She looked back and forth between Eli and Alana. "Are you two okay?"

"Awesome," Eli said bluntly, groaning and rubbing at his face. "This day."

He sighed and straightened his posture, settling his expression into something neutral.

"We don't have time to sit around and talk," he said evenly, stepping into the center of the map. "We need to get going now. The Dark Periphery isn't far from the ocean caverns. I bet that's where Water is."

He cleared his throat and called out: "Locate Water Elemental."

Alana wrung her fingers worriedly as Will's hologram rematerialized, looking down at the slingers.

"You and I used to love sledding during winter in the cabin," Will said, and Alana saw Eli's lips tick upward at the fond memory. "What was the name of our sled?"

The small smile disappeared from Eli's face. He now looked mortified, his face red as he hid it in his hands.

"C'mon, seriously?" he groaned. He sighed and lowered his hands, glaring at the gang, Kord and Pronto in particular. "Not a word about this. We got that sled when I was three."

"Let's hear it, then," Trixie snickered, with a look on her face that clearly said it absolutely would be brought up later.

"Poopypants. My sled's name was Poopypants," Eli deadpanned, sounding like he would rather be slugged than say that out loud. Kord and Pronto fought to hold back laughs, and even Junjie hummed with amusement.

Will's hologram rippled, and he smiled. Alana had no doubt that he knew Eli would be embarrassed saying the answer out loud.

"Access granted. Location: Undertow Cavern," Will said. The map shifted and a blue ping appeared over a small island in Undertow. Alana realized the location was familiar- it was near the beach the gang had gone for a beach day after defeating Blakk.

"You were right, Eli, that's probably the closest one," Alana pointed out, looking at the paths from the Dark Periphery to Undertow. "We've got the open space to transform our mechas. If we go at top speed, we can be there in half an hour."

"Good thing I got Junjie's mecha upgraded!" Kord noted, leading the way back to the gang's mechas and standing up the ones that were still splayed on the ground at the edge of the clearing. Everyone climbed up on their mechas, the sounds of revving engines echoing throughout the Dark Periphery.

"Alright, let's head out," Eli said grimly, leading the way toward Undertow.

There was little conversation on the ride other than Trixie giving Junjie some background on Undertow Cavern. Alana rode next to Eli, trying and failing to think of what she could possibly say after their world had been turned upside down.

For fifteen minutes, the gang rode without interruption, leaving the dark forests of the Periphery behind for lighter rocks, multicolored vegetation, and wetlands and mangroves starting to crop up.

Then, without warning, Alana suddenly gasped. It felt like someone dumped ice water down her spine. Her muscles tensed against her will, and she was frozen to the spot despite the urge to run. Her grip on Midnight's handlebars loosened as her body suddenly felt like it was made of lead, and she began to slump to the side.

Eli noticed first, yelling out in alarm and reaching over to grab Midnight's handlebars, straightening the mecha. He slammed on Lucky's brakes and flipped the emergency brake trigger on Midnight, the rest of the gang following suit and screeching to a halt.

"Alana, what's wrong?" he asked frantically, propping up Lucky's kickstand and jumping down from the white wolf bike to hold Alana up on Midnight.

Before she could find a way to untense her jaw and answer, familiar red flashes started erupting from the gang's bandoleers.

Pronto shrieked as his Aquabeek and Frostcrawler transformed into ghouls. Eli gasped as his Aquabeek did the same, the dark teal ghoul growing and barking from his bandoleer. Alana winced as her Aquabeek, Blue, turned and jumped out of her bandoleer, disappearing into the mangroves to the side of the dirt road the gang was stopped on.

Pain stabbed at her temples, but her muscles finally untensed and she gasped, her chest heaving as she rubbed at her head. All around them, patches of water in the mangroves started to bubble and slowly turn red. Her heart sank at the familiar feeling of dark water.

"The Water Elemental must have been corrupted," Junjie said gravely, urging his new Frostfang to stay put. "If we hurry, we could confront... whoever is responsible."

Alana frowned at the way he'd said that, like he maybe knew who was behind this, but she was too busy focusing on not sliding off her mecha. If every water-related slug had just been ghouled, nearly half the caverns' slugs were corrupted now, and she was feeling it. The coldness that was starting to prick at her fingers reminded her of when she'd fallen ill and had to go to the Lightwell.

"L-let's go," she stammered, pulling away from Eli's hold and righting herself on Midnight, buckling in to keep herself on the seat. The others hesitated, and she gritted her teeth and revved Midnight's engine. "Guys, let's go, I'll be fine!"

Eli narrowed his eyes, but he nodded, climbing back onto Lucky.

"You heard her, let's go!" he called, speeding forward with the other five slingers following. Alana stayed next to him, taking deep breaths and trying to quickly adjust to the renewed ache in her bones.

Eli glanced over at her worriedly. Ash nuzzled up against her cheek and chirped quietly, exchanging a glance with Mage on Alana's other shoulder.

"Alana, maybe..." he began, but she tersely cut him off.

"Eli Shane, you better not be about to say I should stay back," she warned. But the look he gave her confirmed her suspicions. "Eli, it's fine, it's just been a while since there've been so many ghouls. If we have to cure the Elementals to fix things, we need all the healers we can, including the Boon Docs and me."

Eli sighed, and it looked like he had more to say, but he decided against it, turning his gaze forward as the mangroves around the road faded away into full beaches.

"Right."