The sounds of the bombardments and cries from the battlefield diminished instantly.

The contrasting features he acquired were foreign to my eyes. His pale, greenish skin, his huge horns that grew out of his massive arms, his pointy ears and dark veins that were so visible under his cold skin.

Even his eyes, his ocean blue eyes, were now evil red.

At that instant, a wave of hurt and disbelieve washed over me. The man I grieved for was alive and dead at the same time. His eyes filled with anger and vengeance. He wasn't the Eli I know.

"He cannot hear you," the Goon drawled, perching on his shoulder. He even struggled to take a step forward. He was a literal walking corpse.

"Eli..."

I took a step forward, and then another, and another, beating alongside my weary heartbeat. My mind was blank. I didn't know what to do. 

"Do you know what your weakness is?" he smirked at me. "He is, and I'm going to use him against you. You're not going to kill him, and that is exactly how, the leader of Slugterra will fall."

His deepened voice was so real to me, but they never registered in my mind.

"Admit it, Alessia. I won. You are going to pay for everything you have done to my army," the Goon scowled.

He was right. He won.

I froze in tracks. My palms found their way beside me head and I took off my helmet, dropping it to the ground. He watched as I took off the rest of my armour, ignoring the painful scratches on my open wound while I do so.

"I'm not going to fight you," I said, staring straight into his deadly eyes, throwing the armour to the ground. His frown turned into an evil smirk. His muscles tensed up before he lunged at me, and tackled me to the ground.

Tiny broken glasses pierced into my back, worsening the cuts. He pushed me down by my shoulder. Pinning me to the ground, his accursed eyes laid on me unsparingly. I kept my eyes shut, enduring the agonising pain from his injurious punches on my abdomen and jaw.

The waterworks made an appearance at the thought of losing him again. I had gone through so much in life, even death, but seeing him in this state was just unbearable, and I am willing to give up everything to turn things around.

My eyelids ascended hesitantly when he stopped hurting me. He grinned evilly down at me, with a large piece of broken glass in his hand. He held onto it so tightly that it was cutting through his own skin. Blood coated the black-stained glass.

"You have caused me so much trouble! We fall because of you!" he raged, clenching on the glass even harder, causing more blood to spatter. "I will kill you!"

"Do it then," I whispered, a tear rolled down my cheek and I rested my eyes for the final time. "Because you are my everything, and I'm with you no matter what."

In the darkness, I awaited my demise.

Nothing happened.

The glass shattered.

My eyes flung opened when he let out a chilling scream. His back arched almost paranormally, before he fell backwards to the ground. His eyes shut tight, his veiny hands pulled strongly on his raven blue hair.

"Get out of my head!"

My heart dropped to the ground.

It was his voice.

"Eli!" I screamed.

I wanted to run to him, to be in his arms again, but my body was failing me. Every inch of pain was pulling me down.

I bit my lips and looked up at him. His body was extremely tensed as he rolled on the ground. The Goon was not perching on his shoulder anymore. He was standing on the ground near him, trying to take over his mind again.

He was fighting the Goon.

With all the strength left in me, I forcefully dragged myself across the glass-filled floor, ignoring the pain, ignoring the struggle. All I want was him and only him.

I climbed on top of him and straddled him, stopping him from rolling onto the broken glass by putting my weight on him. My trembling palms caressed his cheeks, my tears fell onto his pale face.

He was shaking uncontrollably. His eyelids opened and shut frantically as he fought the metal war. I noticed it, even if it was only for a split second, his eyes shifted vigorously from evil red to his beautiful ocean blue.

"Eli!" I cried with a trembling voice. "You have to fight this! You have to fight the Goon! Please!"

A loud scream escaped his pale lips and echoed throughout the room. It wasn't enough. He was still fighting.

I pulled him up in a sitting position and wrapped my arms around his neck, burying my head into the crook of his neck and cried my heart out.

"Eli, listen to me. You are my everything. You are all that I want. I beg you. Please don't leave me. I... I can't lose you again!"

"A-Ales..."

I looked up at him. Tears streamed down his face. He placed his shaky hands on my shoulders, gently pushing me away.

"What... what are you doing?" I questioned him.

"Run. Run away from me. Please. I'm not strong enough to overcome him," he stammered. "I... I'll kill you."

It was then I realised he was trying so hard to push me away, but he did not have the strength to do it.

His eyes were suddenly shut tight, black spots circled his head like gnats. He inhaled sharply, his hands grasped his head as he flinched in pain.

My heart was broken into pieces.

"No Eli."

I leaned forward and caressed his face, laying my forehead on his.

"Listen to me. I'll rather die than to spend another day without you. I'm not going anywhere. I never will. I'm staying. I'm staying here for you. Come on Eli, fight it! You're so much stronger than him! You can do this! Please! I love you! Come back to me!"

I pulled back as he groaned at the top of his lungs, his chest rise and fell at an unbelievably fast rate. Sweats formed on the sides of his forehead, veins were visible on his temples.

I can see the tormenting suffering he was experiencing, but I could do nothing to stop it, and I hated myself for it.

My gaze fell behind him, and I saw the Goon keeping his eyes shut, focusing all his strength and power on Eli, not realising the Frostcrawler and three Infurnuses sneaking up on him.

The four slugs attacked the Goon, knocking him down and pinning him to the ground, risking themselves from being ghouled. Prime then blew out a wave of icy frost at the ghoul, temporarily trapping him in an ice cube.

Eli's groans ceased in that instant. His strength left him as his slumping body leaned against mine.

I held him close to me, I never want to let go of him, ever again. I looked at his worn out face, my eyes searching for any sign of life as I cupped his face with a hand.

"E-Eli?"

The horns on his arms retracted, his skin got back his normal tan.

His eyelids budged, and they rose.

His ocean blue eyes were back.

I never realised how much I missed them until that very instant. I stared into those eyes, and they stared into me. They were locked; disbelief crossed our minds.

I couldn't believe it.

I couldn't believe he was back.

And before I knew it, his arms were wrapped around me and he pulled me in for a bone-crushing hug. He buried his face into the crook of my neck and started weeping.

"I'm here. I'm here," I tried to whisper in a calm tone. I wrapped my arms around his neck, gently caressing his back. I closed my eyes and pulled him closer to me, shortening the distance between us as his cries echoed throughout the room.

"I almost killed you. I almost killed you..." he wept with a trembling voice. By the way his muscles tensed up and his arms quivered around me, I could tell how fearful he was. He pulled back slightly from the hug and cupped my cheeks, with dried up tears and dust covering his charming face.

"Are you insane? I almost killed you! Why didn't you fight back? Why didn't you run away?" he asked, his tears sparkled before his blue eyes.

"Because it was either you or me, Eli, and I will always choose you," I smiled weakly at him. He let out a shaky sigh, and pulled me into another tight hug. My arms were once again wrapped around him. I didn't want to let go of him. I craved for him.

"I miss you so, so much," I cried. "I love you, Eli. Don't you, ever, forget that."

"I never did," he replied, sinking deeper into the hug. "I love you too, Ales. Just as much, or even more."

New hot tears were streaming down my cheeks as I buried my face in his chest. No words could express what I was feeling.

There was a moment of silence, where both of us were trying to calm down from the recent traumatic events.

Was life pulling a joke on us?

How did all this happened?

From me losing him in the most unexpected way possible, to him coming back to me in the most unexpected way possible?

If I could thank reality, I would.

Eli and I, we're finally together.

The wait was finally over.

I couldn't wait to finally spend the rest of my life with the man I adore so flopping much.

After what felt like a century, he let out a soft chuckle and spoke up.

"Are you still down for the movie date tonight?" he breathed and chuckled softly. "Sorry that I'm late for... how long have I been gone for? A week?"

"A week?" I giggled softly. "Everyone would have been dead if it's only a week."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "What do you mean-" 

"Ales! We saw Dalinda sending Will Shane out of the citadel! What's taking you so long in there? Do you need backup or more slugs or-"

Mia spoke into the earpiece a second before the door to the room burst opened, with a Flaringo soaring into the room. The remaining leaders rode their mechas into their room, and almost fell over their rides when they saw him.

"ELI!"

They dismounted their mechas and sprinted to us, crashing into a big group hug. The waterworks made an appearance on everyone.

It was then I felt the love and warmth, but also the soreness and how beatened up my body was. Deep bruises and dried up blood covered my body, but it was very much worth it.

The Shane Gang is back.

My family is back.

Eli Shane is back.

Dalinda then came wandering into the room, and turned into a puppy when she saw Eli. She howled and leaped towards us, wanting to join the group hug but didn't quite know how to do so without crushing everyone.

After a good five minutes, everyone pulled back from the hug. Eli wrapped an arm around my waist, and my arms were around his neck. I laid my head on his chest. Hearing his steady, strong heartbeat, the corners of my lips rose to a tired smile. Dalinda walked up to him and nudged her head into his hand, receiving many pets from him.

Dalinda then came to my side and laid beside me, the slugs in her slug carriers came out to greet Eli. His slugs were over the moon when they saw their slinger alive. They attacked him with adorable but tiny kisses and hugs.

The four slugs hopped towards us. Prime and Aurora inserted themselves into the canisters on my bandoleer. Phoenix perched on my shoulder and Burpy perched on his, just like good old times.

He then looked up at the group of slingers standing before him, all bloody and exhausted, armed with accelerated blasters and titanium armour.

"What in the Slugterra... What is everyone wearing?" he asked, unintentionally putting a smile on everyone's face. "What's going on?"

My eyes widened.

I completely forgot about the ongoing war.

"How's everything out there?" I asked everyone in the room hurriedly. Trixie smirked at me as she spun her blaster in her hand.

"To put it simply, we won," she smiled, and I let out a breath of relief.

"Won what?" Eli asked, looking down at me for answers.

"We'll need a very long time to catch-up," Mia nodded her head at Eli.

"But before that," Mia walked up to me and rested a hand on my shoulder, "I'm sure the people would want to see you doing alright, and welcome back our resurrected leader."

"What are you talking about? What did I miss- ARE WE AT WAR!?" Eli exclaimed, looking around frantically while we let out a small laugh.

He was so confused.

Cute.

"See it for yourself," Kord smirked at Eli. Everyone mounted their mechas and started to exit the room. I mounted Dalinda and Eli climbed up behind me.

On our way out of the citadel Eli was bombarding me with questions regarding what was happening and what happened to my back. I only responded with a knowing smirk. He finally shut his mouth when we exited the citadel, and was invited by our entire army, the residents and creatures of Slugterra.

Everyone cheered aloud and raised their blasters when they saw us, but when their eyes laid on the man behind me, it was like time had stopped for one second where everyone held their breaths in utter shock, before the monsters screeched and the entire nation roared, firing their Phosphoros and Grenukes. Thousands of slugs majestically transformed and soared above the battlefield, creating huge fireworks to proclaim our victory.

There was newfound hope in every single pair of eyes when they saw Eli. It finally hit them that we saved Slugterra. We saved our home together, and I couldn't be any prouder.

"Wow," Eli breathed, taking in the extraordinary sight of the entirety of Slugterra standing together in front of the defeated citadel.

The Elementals returned and they came back to me. They returned to photoform and perched on Dalinda, totally exhausted from healing all 99 caverns but were also excited to see Eli.

I put on a tired smile.

We did it.

We saved Slugterra.

...
I can finally rest in peace even though the book isn't finished :')

Anyway I hope you enjoyed reading the chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! Don't forget to vote and comment hehe

Ohh and also it's such a coincidence that this is chapter 52, where 520 means 'I love you' in Chinese :D