With a hup from both parties, Stealth Elf and Camo jumped onto the final platform and shook themselves off.

"That was one trip!" Stealth Elf remarked as she plucked a leaf out of her braid. "Good thing you were here, though. You sure know your way around this place!"

"It's nothing! All just apple slices for me!" Camo chirped as he untangled a vine that had wrapped around his legs.

"Have you been here before?"

Camo stared into the open forest space with a blank stare as he heard Stealth Elf's question, his mouth gaped into a slow drop. "I'm not sure." Camo held his head down low, his once blank expression now dusted with wide eyes and a deeper frown. "I don't really remember this place, but—"

Camo's mouth dropped open, and he shuddered and held his hand with both his paws.

"Camo, what's going on?"

"I, I—" Camo looked at Stealth Elf with a heavy, pained frown, his pupils tiny and his leafy scales drooped. "I think something's—" Camo grunted, fell to his paws and shuddered further "—ugh, my head!"

"A headache?" Stealth Elf asked as she knelt down towards Camo. "My master taught me a natural remedy for those." Stealth Elf grabbed Camo's horns tight. "Just let me grab on to…"

Stealth Elf's ears twitched as the sound of rustling leaves cried out from further ahead. Her grip on Camo's horns loosened while she looked over to the sound's source, but tightened back up as she pulled Camo down to the platform while a sharp blade just narrowly graze their backs!

"Well, well, look what we have here!" crooned a voice from ahead as someone else stepped closer and claimed the blade as it returned. "The Skylanders! What unwelcome visitors!"

Stealth Elf gritted her teeth beneath the cloth of her mask as she let go of Camo. There, right in front of her, were none other then drow! They were thankfully small in numbers; it was just a teal-skinned witch in darker teal robes and a couple of footsoldiers adorned in rusted armor that clasped tight onto metal spears. Nothing they couldn't handle, but it was still annoying to have them appear.

Stealth Elf reached for her daggers as the drow soldiers readied their weapons, but she heard a groan beside her followed by a thunk. Her eyes trailed back to Camo, except Camo didn't gaze back, for he was completely unconscious and asleep on the platform!

"Camo!" Stealth Elf called as she cradled his leafy body and hastily shook it. "Wake up! Now's no time for a nap!"

Camo didn't awaken—in fact, he made not a single noise as Stealth Elf continued to shake him. So, Stealth Elf only laid him back down on the platform and stood up, daggers in hand and brows furrowed in a way that almost invited a fight!

Stealth Elf leaped forward and plunged her blades down on the witch, but they didn't even make contact! The witch cast a shield in the nick of time! So, Stealth Elf grunted and backflipped off the shield before she teleported away! The drow soldiers and witch all frantically looked around, but no matter where they looked, they didn't find Stealth Elf, who teleported right behind the witch!

Stealth Elf raised her blades and got ready to slice as several spears shoved their way in front of her! The drow footsoldiers clearly found her! Stealth Elf slashed her daggers at them and sent them reeling back as visible rips tore in the poorly-kept clothing underneath their armor. She jumped in for the victory as she teleported out of the fray, with only a straw scarecrow left to stand in her former place.

The footsoldiers stared in shock at the straw dummy, and laid oblivious to Stealth Elf as she reappeared above them! Stealth Elf dropped down, daggers at the ready, but midway through her drop, something hard and magical slammed into her back and tossed her aside! Stealth Elf cried out as she crashed into the platform and skidded across, all while a chorus of laughter mocked her. She reached for her pockets to grab her daggers, or so it seemed. Rather, she immediately shot out clouds of poisonous spores!

The soldiers and witch all broke into horrendous coughing fits as they tried and failed to clear the smoke, and better yet, they were wide open for attacks! Stealth Elf kicked the soldiers aside and fixed herself on the witch, and in turn the witch gasped and flipped her blades in front of her. These blades formed a turquoise light in their hollow centers that soon turned into a blast of energy! Thankfully, however, the sickness must have impaired the witch's aim, for the energy blasts just zipped out of the clouds with not a hair on Stealth Elf's head touched!

Stealth Elf smirked underneath her mask, grabbed her daggers and leaped! Her daggers swiped inches away from the witch's face before the witch cast up a shield. Seems that the spores didn't impair the witch's magic, unfortunately. Stealth Elf went to attack against as the shield cast, only for something to slash against her arm! Stealth Elf cried out in pain as she fell to her knees, and looked to her side to reveal a nice gash with blue blood slowly poured out its surface. She only grimaced as she covered up the wound with her hand, and as a number of shadows cast upon her, Stealth Elf looked up. The soldiers and witch imposed themselves above her, and were more than ready to attack!

But before she could, she heard a number of shocked screams and looked aside! When Stealth Elf looked up again, all four of the drow she faced were trapped tight in large, thorny vines and could only writhe around in a futile attempt to escape! But how? Stealth Elf's ears flicked as the soft prod of footsteps found their way towards her. She looked up as a shadow darkened over her, and smiled at the figure she saw!

"Camo! You're alright!" Stealth Elf exclaimed with relief before she tilted her head in sheer confusion, "Why are your eyes glowing?"

Sure enough, Camo's eyes glowed with a bright, greenish-white light that masked their appearance. It almost made the normally goofy and lighthearted Camo seem intimidating, for lack of a better word.

"YOU WHO DESECRATE THE TREE OF LIFE!" Camo proclaimed with the voice of a thousand. "FALL BEFORE ITS POWERS!"

As Camo spoke, the vines he had cast glowed with a bright green light and tightened even further! The drow panted heavily as they tried to squirm, but it was still no use. All they could do was stand them and have the life squeezed out of them, literally!

"CAMO!" Stealth Elf exclaimed as she raced over to Camo and shook him. "Snap out of it! What's going on?"

While Stealth Elf continued to shake Camo, Camo's eyes returned to their normal appearance right as he fainted in Stealth Elf's arms! Stealth Elf gently laid Camo down, and looked back at the drow. The vines hadn't faded from appearance, but at least they weren't hugging the drow soldiers to death. They all heaved heavy, relieved breaths, and jolted up as Stealth Elf walked towards them.

"Alright, spill it!" Stealth Elf demanded, her eyes narrowed and furious. "What are you guys doing here?!"

The drow grimaced and remained silent, save for one who broke out into a cold sweat.

"It was our commander's idea, I swear!" The nervous drow confessed at last. "Lord Kaos sent us out to find those stupid Life Seeds for him, and our commander told us to take over the whole place and make all the wildlife work for us!"

Stealth Elf crossed her arms. "And how would you accomplish that?"

"We have these special enchanted headset thingies that put the wildlife here under out control-ol-ol!" The drow sobbed a few more times, and glared back at the witch with watery eyes. "Well, we did before she lost them."

"LOST THEM?" The witch exclaimed as she glared towards the soldier. "I would've still had them if you hadn't bumped into me on the way here!"

"YOU were the one who bumped into ME!"

While the two of them bickered like petty children, Stealth Elf shook her head and knelt down towards Camo, who slowly groaned as he stood up.

"Ugh, what happened? Did I eat a rotten fruit or something?" Camo groaned as he sat up and rubbed his head. "Stealth, do you—" Camo's eyes grew wide as dinner plates as he saw the giant gash on Stealth Elf's arms. "HOLY ANCIENT ELEMENTALS!"

Stealth Elf looked down at herself and found the wound she had gained from the earlier fight, which still oozed with blue blood. "Oh, must have forgotten about that," Stealth Elf remarked as she untied her bandanna and tied its cloth around her wound.

"How'd you even get that?" Camo continued to fix his eyes on Stealth Elf's bandaged wound, too horrified to look away.

Stealth Elf tilted her head. "Don't you remember? Those drow attacked us, but you trapped them in those vines and practically squeezed them to death?"

"I've got no idea what you're talking about, Stealth."

Camo hopped onto all fours and shook his head as Stealth Elf stood up, and she raised an eyebrow down at Camo.

"Whatever, we've got things taken care of here." Stealth Elf dusted her hands off and walked passed the still-trapped drow soldiers, who only gawked at her as she left them hanging. "Let's move on!"

Camo hopped after Stealth Elf with an eager grin on his face as he rejoined her. However, Stealth Elf wasn't very quick to return that eagerness—Camo couldn't remember a thing about that battle? Even the time he had jumped in himself? Why was he acting so strange? Either he was playing one of those "elaborate pranks of a lifetime" he loved talking about, or something was wrong with him, and not in the "He doesn't know when to quit and is generally obnoxious way," but like. Something really wrong.

Stealth Elf sprung up as she heard an explosion, and then a number of groans.

"WATERMELON?" demanded the witch from the back of the crowd. "THOSE STAINS TAKE WEEKS TO GET OUT! WHYYYYYYY?"

Camo made a content giggle as Stealth Elf rolled her eyes at him. Classic Camo—guess he really did feel like himself now. Even so, as they moved on, Stealth Elf couldn't shake the feeling that there was something very wrong with him, and her eyes trained on Camo as they walked.

§

"So that's what happened up till this point," Master Eon explained as he hovered circles around Drobot while the light of his body glowed and faded in tune with his words. "Since young Chihiro borrowed the books she used to make the machine from you, perhaps you can help us figure out how she disappeared?"

"Potentially," Drobot replied as he drew his claws against the chin of his helmet. "However, I require data of the machine's design first. And unless you still possess a physical copy of the machine itself, that data would be quite hard to obtain."

Hugo and Master Eon both traded glances and gulped.

"Well, we could describe it!" Hugo said as he scratched the back of his head then held up a hand with three fingers. "It had three different parts, and I think the middle one was the largest?" Hugo turned to Master Eon. "Wait, or was it the right one?"

"It was the middle one," Master Eon replied as he bobbed up and down, then turned to Drobot, "and it had a lever on the rightmost side…"

"And a few panels…"

"And they all came in such a colorful array of metals! Also, I believe it had a gigantic screen in the center…"

"Yes, yes! And there were many different screws, and a gigantic keyboard…"

While Master Eon and Hugo continued to describe the machine, Drobot frowned and made what sounded like a mechanical hum. He perked up as a whooshing sound echoed through the room, turned around, and turned his gaze back to Master Eon and Hugo.

"This machine would not happen to look anything like that, perhaps?" Drobot asked as he pointed a claw backwards.

Hugo and Master Eon poked their heads over Drobot's shoulder and let out twin gasps. Sure enough, there behind them all was Chihiro's machine!

"That's it!" Hugo exclaimed as he clasped his paws, his expression gleeful for mere moments before it fell once more. "But where's Chihiro?"

Drobot paid no mind to Hugo—he only hovered towards the machine and examined its open panel.

"I believe I have found the conclusion to your problem," Drobot proclaimed as he yanked something out of the panel and set it free. "A fly had gotten trapped in the inner mechanisms of the machine, a bug in the hardware, if you will."

Drobot closed the panel, pulled the lever and watched as the machine whirred to life! He ignored Master Eon and Hugo as they joined him, for his attention was seemingly completely fixed on the strange machine as it bustled and buzzed and beeped with an excited tone. Finally, he walked up to the middle compartment, toyed with the keyboard, and nodded as it rattled off a list of potential assignments on its brightly-colored screen!

"So that was the issue after all!" Master Eon proclaimed as he watched the screen in amazement.

But, what Master Eon didn't notice was that Chihiro stood behind him in the strange, grayscale world, her arms crossed in contentment.

"See?" Chihiro remarked with a smirk as the Missionator worked away, "I told you guys it would work!"

Chihiro beamed in the success of her creation for a few moments, but soon shuddered and hugged herself. "Geez!" Chihiro's teeth chattered as she rubbed her arms in some desperate attempt to warm herself. "Did somebody open a window?"

"Something is wrong here…"

"Huh?" Chihiro's arms dropped to her sides as she tilted her head. "What was that voice?"

"Something in this world does not belong…"

"WHO WAS THAT?" Chihiro jumped at least a foot in the air, her face white as a sheet ghost.

"WHERE IS THE ANOMALY?!"

Chihiro screamed as her pale face turned purple from sheer horror. She gulped as she reluctantly turned around, and screamed as she fell to her feet!

There, right before her were several gigantic grim reapers! Their beady pink eyes poked out from the shadows cast under their ragged purple hoods, and donned around their necks were giant pendants with intricate space patterns painted onto their surfaces in such detail that it almost looked as if they had an actual galaxy inside. The beauty would be admired normally, but their intimidating aura made it hard to enjoy the sights—and the gigantic, extremely sharp scythes they carried probably didn't help, either!

"CLEANSE THE ANOMALY!" the reapers proclaimed as one as they swung their scythes!

Chihiro screamed as she just narrowly jumped out the way of one and watched it crash into the wall, then frantically ducked underneath the second. As the third one went to swing, Chihiro spun around and made a beeline for the door.

"C'mon, c'mon!" Chihiro panicked as she jiggled the door's knob. "Open already, dangit!"

But it was no use—the knob didn't respond to her touch at all!

"Now's not the time to get stuck!" Chihiro yanked the doorknob some more, then kicked the door in a frantic motion. "OPEN UP!"

Still, nothing happened. The door didn't even make a sound as Chihiro's kick made contact, as if she hadn't even touched it at all!

"Crap! What's wrong with this thing?"

"CLEANSE THE ANOMALY!"

Chihiro screamed once more as the reapers floated towards her with the speed of cheetahs, their massive bodies encased around her as they lifted their scythes, and rolled out of the way as they slashed straight through the door! Chihiro panted and caught her breath as she looked up and briefly caught flashes of shock on Master Eon, Hugo and Drobot's face. What got them so worked up? Chihiro didn't have much time to contemplate this, because the reapers had gone in for the kill once more!

With another scream, Chihiro closed her eyes and teleported out of their view! When she reopened them, she found herself within the hub of Ancient's Peak, and her body leaned against the exterior of the tower that she once resided in. She sighed in relief and slunk down onto the grass.

"That was too freaky," Chihiro panted as she carded her hands through her hair. "Just what's going on in this place? Everything's gray and Hugo and Master Eon can't hear me and there's these weird reapers—" Chihiro poked her head up "—it's like something out of a nightmare!"

Her breath now completely caught, Chihiro stood up and walked back into the heart of the island.

"Wait, maybe I'm just dreaming!" Chihiro pinched her cheek and yelped as the pain surged through her body, only to open her eyes and groan. "Nope, definitely not dreaming."

Chihiro groaned as she surveyed the island, which was still lively as ever despite the monotonous grayscale.

"Maybe—" Chihiro's eyes trailed over to the Far-Viewer, where Cali and Persephone were engaged in deep conversation "—Master Eon and Hugo might not be able to see me, but someone else could!"

Chihiro hopped over to Cali and waved a hand in front of Cali's face.

"Hey, Cali!" Chihiro exclaimed, "I could really use your help right now! You see…"

Chihiro stopped short as she noticed that Cali had taken no mind to her. Rather, Cali was still just as engaged in her conversation with Persephone, who was barely audible and completely distorted to Chihiro's ears.

"Persephone?" Chihiro turned her gaze towards an elated-looking Persephone, who held a scrap of worn paper in her hands, "What'cha talking about?" Chihiro's eyes glazed down to the paper. "Oh, hey! That's the Fairy Kingdom map I found on my other mission! So, did you figure out when we're gonna leave—"

"ANOMALY!"

Chihiro sharply gasped as a chill poured down over the area, looked up and scrambled back. Right there, up in the grayscale skies, were those reapers, and they didn't seem very happy to see her!

"Crap, I need to get out of here!" Chihiro raced forward, only for a reaper to swing its scythe just inches away from her face. "ACK!"

Chihiro teleported away just in time for a reaper to plunge its scythe into the depths of where she once stood, which in turn sent giant fissures through the island! Entire chunks fell apart under her feet the moment she reappeared, but plunged into the depths of the skies below, never to be seen again! Wait, hold on a second. Chihiro shuddered as she noted that she was surprisingly light on her feet, and looked down to find that no, it wasn't her—the entire area below her fell into the deep!

Chihiro teleported back onto solid land and dashed into the forest, all while the chill of those strange reapers laid thick on her back. She knew for a fact that they were probably chasing after her, but she couldn't stop to check! She was more focused on getting out of this place! Chihiro hunched over and panted as she ran, and stumbled back into a nearby tree as more fissures formed under her feet! Chihiro clung to the tree's trunk for dear life as the ground below fractured further, and looked back to find another reaper as it yanked its scythe out of the ground below. These guys sure were destructive, weren't they?

Chihiro gritted her teeth and teleported in a flash of blue. As she found herself near the thankfully-unoccupied sanctuaries, she paused and rested against the crystalline walls of the Magic Sanctuary. Looked like everything here was still intact—maybe they couldn't find her here? If that was the case, perhaps she could rest here and figure out—

"FIND THE ANOMALY!"

Chihiro shuddered as the reaper's bone-chilling voice echoed throughout the island and informed her that nope, that wasn't the case! Chihiro winced as their shadows crept down across the ground, gritted her teeth and teleported away. Hopefully this time she could shake them.