It hasn't been even a second before Catastrophe's Army begins to attack us again, and we're not doing well at all. We've been pushed against the forest, and the survivors of this battle are beginning to drop their weapons, nurse their wounds, and in more than a few cases, flee. Catastrophe's Army is pressing us closer and closer into the forest, Catastrophe at the lead, staring into my eyes, a funny, unreadable expression on his face. And then I hear Caelani and Ecio mutter to each other.

"If we scatter, we might end up having to retreat. It's a dangerous idea," Caelani murmers worriedly.

"If we stay, we might all die now." Ecio's deep voice remains firm.

Out of the corner of my mouth, not taking my eyes off Catastrophe's gaze, I whisper, "Listen to Ecio."

So Caelani does. "RETREAT!" he yells, and we all scatter. Through the forest everyone runs, but the worrying thing is Catastrophe remains with me the whole time. Ravage goes after Trill, Sienna, and Jake, Majora charges at Vivean, Pheonix, Laria, Bob, and Gog, and a variety of other troops, including prisoners from the Crying Cavern go after the largest group, made up of Cornelia Hornshaw, who has grease all over her face as a result of a battle with a paticuarly large Scion, Charlie, Alexander the bat, a fox named Delilah, Trixie, Blazing Star, several BIG workers I have face recognition of, Tani, Seth Scrueless, Giniva, Icy's dad(missing his shadow!), and other people I don't recognize at all. But Catastrophe stays with me, Ecio, and Caelani, although he seems to be most interested in me. Then the mighty Gryphon's shadow comes straight at the two Powers.

"NO!" I scream, but my exlcamation falls on deaf ears; when the shadow slammed into them, Caelani and Ecio were knocked over, and it's just me and Catastrophe now. I run for about two  more minutes, jumping over roots, dodging branches, until...

I hit something hard, and my head swims. Looking up, Catstrophe is still staring back, and he has the same strange look on his face.

"Ronan, Ronan, Ronan. We meet again."

"...not willingly," I mutter dumbly.

"Ha, well, you don't really have a choice, do you?"

"Let me tell you, if I hadn't bumped into this huge tree..."

"Yes, yes, you'd be putting up your dukes and blasting me to pieces, then spruce yourself up and go look at that Icy girl and blush a bit when she looked at you, stupid things like that."

"You..."

"I've noticed it, it does happen. You blush when she looks at you."

"How would you notice that? And I don't, for the record!"

"Ronan, I've been keeping a very close eye on you for a while now. Ever since you tried to face off with me in those underground tunnels. And my soldiers have been doing it. When you got captured by Marsha Yearwood, for example, I just wanted her to be spying, not kiddnapping. She got punished dearly for that mistake, and I learned not to entrust my soldiers with such important matters, at least not yet, when they do not completely trust me. So I do it, even while I'm making battle preperations miles away."

"How do you do that? Cameras? How shocking."

"No, Ronan. Cameras can be broken easily. People can not."

And then one Catastrophe turns into five. Literally. I gasp. The middle boy king adopts my small, quiet voice and mocks me with an impression of my "How shocking." The other ones laugh.

"And do you know what, Ronan?" the middle Catastrophe remarks, bending down to my level. The other ones look either very pleased or very arrogant. "I'm going to leave you and your stupid friends  alone. You have already lost." He sends a ribbon shooting directly out of his palm into the air, where it twists itself into the Song of War Bird. The five Catstrophes turn into one, and in the blink of an eye he's gone. A second later everyone bursts into the clearing, the soldiers having instantly left on Catastrophe's signal, tripping over each other. Miss Hornshaw seems to have broken her arm.

"Are you all right?" Caelani asks, his face creased in worry.

"I don't know," I mutter. And I tell him everything, sans blushing and Icy. 

I thought you were dead?