"Huh, there sure are a lot of pulleys here," Stealth Elf remarked as she crossed her arms.

Her blank eyes trained up at a series of gigantic wicker baskets that were all held together with an old-looking rope and wheel pulley system like something from the ancient times. It seemed awfully unsafe, but it didn't look like there were any other options for them to move around. So, looks like a little risk-taking was necessary.

Camo waltzed up to the first basket, rapped his paw against its surface and grinned as the front of the basket swung open. He hopped inside and beckoned for Stealth Elf to join him, which she did shortly afterwards.

"You know, Camo, there's something I've been wondering about," Stealth Elf said as she grabbed onto the basket's rope and began pulling it down.

"What is it, Stealth?" Camo asked as he tilted his head. "You can ask, I'm all—" Camo snapped his claws, and a ripe pear grew in his paw "—pears!"

If Stealth Elf had pupils, she surely would've rolled her eyes. However, she did not, so she only cast Camo a tired glance and continued to pull up the basket.

"Back at that place, before we got interrupted by those drow…" Stealth Elf twitched her ear as she brought the basket the highest it could go. "What were you going to tell me?"

"What are you talking about?"

Camo tilted his head, turned around and summoned a few vines. Stealth Elf tugged the rope to make sure it was sturdy enough to stay, walked over to Camo's side and frowned as he crank a nearby wooden lever with the vines he had summoned.

"You know." Stealth Elf jumped onto the edge of the first basket, and flipped into the second as it came close enough in range. "When I asked you about how you know this place so well?"

"Oh, right!" Camo jumped into the second basket and chuckled. "Truth is, I don't really know myself." Camo's cheery gaze faltered just a bit as he looked down at his paws. "It's strange. I don't remember this place at all, but something in my gut feels like I've known it my entire life!"

Camo leaned against the basket's side as Stealth Elf pulled it up higher. "I wish I did, though. It won't stop bugging me, like those obnoxious fruit flies that keep messing up the garden!"

Stealth Elf contemplatively hummed as she held the rope tight and steady.

"You probably wouldn't get it, though."

"No, I kinda understand what you're talking about." Stealth Elf pulled the rope once more. "I don't really remember what my life was like before I woke up in that tree trunk…"

Stealth Elf looked down at the endless forest below, her gaze more contemplative than afraid as she watched the leaves pass her by. "All those years before then are just, gone. There's just a big part of my memory missing, and it's like a whole part of my life just never happened."

"We're two apples from the same tree, then!" Camo made a slightly sympathetic, slightly uneasy chuckle. "I don't really remember anything that happened before I woke up on my old island. My family, my past, it's all one big blur!"

Stealth Elf had no more words to say on that subject, so she only went back to pulling up the basket once more. "And those weird headaches?" Stealth Elf added as she cast Camo another glance. "Or the glowing eyes and stuff?"

"Glowing eyes? That's new." Camo heaved a sigh as he gazed up at the trees, and watched as a leaf fell onto his snout. "Your guess is as good as mine. I still don't remember a thing about that."

Camo shook his head while the leaf flew away on the autumn winds "All I've got is this weird angry feeling I get when I saw those drow messing the place up! It felt like they were destroying a part of me!"

"Well, that's no surprise." Stealth Elf finished heaving up the basket and hopped into the next. "The Tree of Life is the where all life came from!"

"But it's not like that!" Camo insisted as he hopped into the next basket, pulled the door shut and watched them slide down. "It was like they were destroying my home!"

Stealth Elf crossed her arms as the basket finally came to a stop. "Destroying your home, huh? Well, whatever, this should be our stop!"

Stealth Elf looked out towards the wooden platform they had stopped by, which had tons of worn barrels poured down its slopes. She hopped out of the basket, stretched her arms, and narrowed her eyes as she vanished completely from the view of those around! This was only for a second, however. In moments, she reappeared on top of one of the barrels and somersaulted over that barrel to the next. Stealth Elf was a gymnast on stage while she bounced, flipped, and jumped across the storm of barrels, as though this was merely a simple exercise for her.

"Stealth, wait up!" Camo exclaimed as he jumped over one barrels, and zapped another with a fireball that radiated with the sun's warmth.

That, however, wasn't a very good idea—for the moment the fireball made contact with the barrel, it exploded into a flurry of red flames and baked seeds!

"Explosive peppers?" Camo chuckled as he shielded his eyes and licked his snout. "Mmmm, chili!"

Once the clouds cleared, Camo wiggled his rear and leaped on top of one barrel more! He struggled to keep his balance, yet leaped onto the next one, and the one that followed, before he finally flipped forward and landed next to Stealth Elf.

"Not bad," Stealth Elf remarked with an approving cross of her arms, well, if an arm cross could be approving. "Now, let's get going before—"

Stealth Elf and Camo ducked down as a flurry of yellow, orange, and black swarmed just narrowly above them, all paired with the sound of frantic buzzing that had an almost fearful tone to it.

"WASPS!" Camo exclaimed, only to frown as they passed him by. "But, what are they running from?"

"GET BACK HERE, YOU STUPID BEES!" exclaimed a shrill voice from across the platform.

Frantic panting sounded as a drow draped in green clothing ran across the platform with a strange device that vaguely resembled a headset clasped tight in a sweaty, slender hand.

"Those things are faster than they look." The drow panted some more, and his back leaned over for moments before he pulled himself up, "But so am I!"

The drow trailed his eyes towards a hornet who trapped in a thicket and smirked, while his grasp on the headband grew a little tighter than before. "Over here, little bee~" the drow crooned as he stepped closer and closer to the terrified hornet and raised the headband high. "Just let me—ACK!"

Before the drow could even seat the headband on the hornet's head, however, something tossed him to the ground and sent the headband skidding! And that something was none other than a furious, glowing-eyed Camo!

"HOW DARE YOU LAY HARM TO THE CARETAKERS OF THE TREE!" Camo proclaimed in that legion of a thousand voice again. "HAVE YOU NO SHAME?"

"This is going to be a pattern, isn't it?" Stealth Elf bemoaned as she crossed her arms.

The hornet the drow targeted frantically freed itself, and flew away in a hurry—for good reason, too. Camo was furious and fully ready to fight!

The drow grimaced as he shimmied away from Camo and jumped to his feet, but Camo was not one to give up! Camo only lifted his horns and sprouted vines all around the platform; everyone around was now trapped inside its center, and everyone outside completely blocked out.

The drow screamed out as he frantically tried to pry away the vines, but gasped and ran off as a gigantic fireball shot out of Camo's mouth and slammed straight into the vines! The vines themselves were firm enough to extinguish the flames the minute it made contact, but the drow was unfortunately not as fireproof. So, the drow screamed and stumbled about as Camo shot off round after round of flaming hot fireballs! Though, not a single one made contact. In fact, the volleys grew so frantic and rushed that they seemed to just shoot whatever was in reach!

Stealth Elf herself had to teleport away from where she spectated the battle as a fireball crashed down nearby! Just what was he doing?

"Watch it, Camo!" Stealth Elf exclaimed as she poofed into existence near Camo and tried to pull him back. "You're shooting those things everywhere!"

Camo didn't pay mind to Stealth Elf at all. He just thrust himself out of her grasp and went back to chasing after the drow, who still tryied to escape with increasing franticness. The drow gulped and turned around as Camo got ready to shoot off another fireball, screamed and teleported away! While the drow teleported every which way, Camo continued to shoot off gigantic fireballs, and, quite frankly, heat the place up by a few decades of degrees.

Stealth Elf, meanwhile, grunted and withdrew her daggers. "Looks like it's my turn," Stealth Elf whispered as she closed her eyes. "Tag team!"

Stealth Elf blipped out of existence, and reappeared in front of the drow as he tried to escape! The drow tried to run away once more, but Stealth Elf only teleported in front of him again! So, the drow just teleported a few feet away. Looks like two could play at that game. Stealth Elf teleported in front of the drow as he fell on his rear from surprise.

She raised her daggers, now ready to strike, but felt the heat of a thousand suns and gasped as she turned around! There before her was none other than a gigantic fireball hurtled her way! Stealth Elf quickly teleported outside its path, but the drow she was about ready to stop was not that fortunate. He could only watch as the fireball slammed straight into him!

Stealth Elf reappeared and gasped as the fireball exploded into bright flames that quickly extinguished itself. Nothing was left behind of its attack other than a few black singe marks on the vines around, not even a corpse or a pile of ashes. Something was up! Stealth Elf turned around, ready to speak, but her eyes widened as she caught that same drow creep up beside Camo with his strange headband held over Camo's head.

"Camo, look out!"

Stealth Elf went to teleport, but she was far too slow just this once! The drow slammed the headband onto Camo's head before he could even notice, and watched with pleasure as Camo closed his eyes and fell lifeless onto the floor!

"CAMO!" Stealth Elf popped beside Camo and cradled his unconscious body, her eyes filled with fury as she glared down the drow. "What did you do to him?"

"Calm down, forest girl," the drow smirked as he looked down at Camo. "He's far from dead. In fact, I'd saw he's quite lively!"

As the drow spoke, Camo stirred a bit and pulled himself out of Stealth Elf's arms. When he stood up, however, he spoke not a word. He only stared down Stealth Elf, stomped his feet and sent a giant vine of red-hot peppers in her direction!

"What the?" Stealth Elf exclaimed as she teleported away right as the peppers exploded, and reappeared a good few feet away. "Camo, what are you doing? Are you out of your mind?"

"Sorry to say, but he's completely under my control now!" the drow proclaimed as he stroked Camo's head. "Dragon! Take that Skylander out right now!"

Camo only nodded and stomped his feet a few times in a row. As he did this, gigantic vines sprung to life from the platform and wrapped tight around Stealth Elf! Stealth Elf winced as they squeezed her tight, closed her eyes and teleported out of their grasp. She fell to her knees and caught her breath, but was only given a few key moments to do so, for right after, a barrage of fireballs flew towards her direction!

"Huh?"

Stealth Elf looked up and winced. She leaped and teleported out of the way as the fireballs swung closer, but didn't stop to watch them crash into the vines that walled off their arena. She was too busy fighting for her life!

"That's it, dragon!" the drow smirked and clapped his hands. "Oh, I love it when things go right!"

"Camo, what are you doing?" Stealth Elf somersaulted over a gigantic watermelon he sent her way. "It's me, Stealth Elf! We're allies, remember?"

Camo spoke not a word. He just summoned several bananas and flung them towards Stealth Elf like boomerangs! It was so wrong to see the normally energetic and talkative Camo like this, completely silent and still as he drove his ally into ruin.

"Camo, we're Skylanders!" Stealth Elf shouted as she kicked and punched the bananarangs out of her way. "We're not supposed to fight each other like this!"

The drow smirked towards Stealth Elf. "You're wasting your breath! Your little buddy is under my complete control now! He can't hear a word you're saying!"

"You're wrong!" Stealth Elf teleported out the way of a fireball. "The real Camo's in there somewhere, I know it!"

As another string of fireballs shot Stealth Elf's way, she teleported out of their trajectory and grimaced.

"I hope I'm right…"

§

"Wrench," Drobot said as he held a hand towards a sweaty Hugo.

"Here," Hugo replied as he handed a wrench towards Drobot, and watched Drobot turn a few bolts and place the wrench aside.

However, that was only for a few seconds before his eyes trailed back over to the door that was split in half out of seemingly nowhere. The doors in this building were old, but not that old! For them to just splitting clean in half with no prior prompting? What could have possibly happened?

"Screwdriver." Drobot handed a paw out towards Hugo once more, his eyes still fixed on the open panel before him as pushed it again. "Screwdriver!"

"Here."

Hugo handed off the screwdriver towards Drobot and bit his lip. All remained quiet as Drobot and Hugo worked in silence on the machine, the only sounds being mechanical work and that of faint twinkling as Master Eon flitted about the room in a frantic haste and shuddering.

"So, have you figured out how to find her?" Hugo questioned as he pushed himself next to Drobot. "Have you?"

"I would be able to properly analyze the problem if you did not press me, Hugo," Drobot scolded as he pushed Hugo away with one of his mechanical wings. "In so far, I have come to negative conclusions."

"Of course." Hugo sighed and turned his attention to Master Eon, who still shuddered. "Is something wrong, Master Eon?" Hugo ran up to Master Eon and clasped his paws. "You're shaking an awful lot! Is there a draft bothering you?"

However, Master Eon paid no mind to Hugo—he continued flicking about and muttering something to himself.

"What was that strange presence?" Master Eon mumbled as he glazed over Chihiro's tool-infested table.

Hugo wrung his paws together, and frowned as something that sounded like a soft rumble echoed throughout the room. "Did everyone hear that?"

Hugo turned to Drobot and then Master Eon, only to wince as they both nodded.

"Is that an earthquake?"

The rumbling grew louder as they all fell to the floor, though thankfully the machine itself remained intact. Hugo grunted as he hit the cold stone face-first, and moaned as he crawled about and reached for his glasses.

"Glasses, glasses…" Hugo patted his paws against the stone floors, then beamed as he grabbed onto his glasses. "Oh, here they are!"

Hugo smiled as he propped his glasses back onto his face, but frowned and tilted his head upwards. "Wait, did anyone else hear screaming?" Hugo turned to Master Eon and Drobot and scoffed as they gave him strange looks. "Don't give me that look, it isn't me this time!"

Hugo scoffed again as his browns clenched, but he jumped to feet as footsteps and panting echoed through the room!

"Master Eon, it's awful!" Cali exclaimed as she stumbled into the room with eyes wide and sweat rained down her head.

"What's awful, Cali?" Hugo asked as he ran up to Cali. "Is something going on?"

"The island!" Cali made several frantic hand gestures as she spoke. "It's falling apart!"

"FALLING APART?" Hugo jumped at least a foot in the air, and hastily ruffled his fur as he made his landing. "That can't be!"

"Just look outside if you don't believe me!"

Cali lead everyone down the stairs as the rumbling grew more intense. The whole room shuddered and rattled along with the earthquake-esque rumbling that grew louder and louder. Crumbs of rock and sawdust cascaded down from the ceilings while larger bricks popped out of the walls like they were made of air! To be honest, that didn't exactly make Hugo feel any better.

Creeeaaaaakkkkkkkkkk…

What was that? Oh no, don't tell him! Hugo bit his lip and looked up at the ceiling, but screamed as part of it buckled and sent a gigantic bookshelf crashing down on the stairs behind them! The force from its blow was so great that it not only broke the staircase in half, but vaulted everyone off the stairs and out the doors!

They all collapsed in a pile, but only for moments as the crash of a nearby boulder made them jump back to their feet and face reality.

Sure enough, Cali was right—the island was falling apart! Gigantic fissures carved themselves in the earth while entire chunks of buildings crashed down into the abyss. Everything fell apart as if it was made of sand or children's crafting dough; it was horrible! Hugo could barely bring himself to keep his eyes open as everybody else gasped.

"How is this happening?" Hugo croaked as he covered his mouth with his paws.

"Your guess is as good as mine!" Cali shouted back before she turned around and widened her eyes. "Persephone, look out!"

Cali grunted and sprinted forward right to where Persephone tried to race against a cliff face that slowly fell off from the rest of the island. Cali lunged forward as Persephone scrambled to the top, and pulled Persephone to safety! Once Persephone was safely in her grasp, Cali jumped away and bridal-carried Persephone as the broken cliff-face sinked into the oceans below.

"Are you alright?" Cali asked as she tightened her grip on Persephone.

"Thanks to you, happy Cali!" Persephone exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around Cali, only to fly out and lift Cali up while the quakes grew more intense. "Come, now! I believe the rescue balloons are already on their merry way!"

Drobot flicked a switch on his mechanical wings and hovered above the others as Cali and Persephone took leave. "I will aid in the relief efforts," Drobot said as he hovered ahead and turned around. "Will the two of you be able to calculate the root of this problem?"

"I'm sure Master Eon would know what to do!" Hugo promised as he turned and made a wide, shaky grin towards Master Eon. "Right, Master Eon?"

"The strange presence is only growing," Master Eon muttered to himself and shuddered, completely oblivious to Hugo's presence beside him, "something is very wrong here."

Sweats droplets formed on Hugo's brow as he forced himself to smile wider. "Yes, yes, I'm pretty sure the whole island falling apart is definitely something very wrong! Now how do we fix it?"

Master Eon turned to Hugo and glowed much brighter than before. "Hugo, we must return to the machine this instant!"

"But, Master Eon!" Hugo exclaimed as Master Eon grabbed his paw and pulled him back towards the portal building. "What about the island?"

"I don't have time to explain! Just follow me!"

Hugo winced and made a slight waver of hesitation as he watched Master Eon slam the portal building's door shut with magic, but ultimately conceded as Master Eon levitated them both on the remaining part of the stairs. No words were spoken as Hugo dashed up the stairs as fast as his stubby legs could carry him, but their urgent pants conveyed enough fear to last Hugo a lifetime.

As the two of them jumped through the vast, open space that once held a door, Hugo breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, the room and all its bearings save for the door were still intact, but that way Master Eon kept shuddering indicated that something was still amiss.

"I was not sure at first, but now I'm fairly certain." Master Eon turned back to Hugo and bobbed with utmost urgency. "There's a disturbance in the spacetime continuity!"

"Spacetime continuity?" Hugo repeated as he took off his glasses and wiped them clean. "But how, and why?"

Master Eon floated towards the machine the machine and sighed. "I had studied this subject extensively in my youth, so I have some ideas." Master Eon glowed a bit brighter as he examined the machine. "I believe that when the machine disappeared, it dropped young Chihiro into another dimension entirely!"

Hugo placed his glasses back on and bit his lip. "That would explain why she didn't return."

"Legends spoke about what happens in scenarios like these in my youth. Because she is not native to that dimension, the continuity had been disturbed, and when the continuity is disturbed…" Master Eon shuddered once again. "It awakens the reapers."

"Reapers?" Hugo blinked and rubbed his glasses. "Like the ones who ferry the undead?"

"Somewhat." Master Eon bounced from area to area as he gathered up stray tools and whatever else. "These reapers guard the spacetime continuity from any and all anomalies that dare disturb it. When they awaken, they'll stop at nothing to keep reality from unraveling at the very seams, even if it means destroying everything in their wake!" Master Eon looked towards Hugo. "When something in one dimension is destroyed, the damage is immediately brought to all versions of it across dimensions as well."

"That means..."

Hugo's eyes widened in shock, but nonetheless he pulled himself together and nodded.

"We have to bring her back, now!" Master Eon and Hugo exclaimed in unison, though their determined turned into frowns and confusion soon after.

"But how?" Hugo asked as he prodded up to Master Eon.

"I may have an idea," Master Eon remarked as his metaphorical eyes glazed over Chihiro's machine.