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Chapter Three:

Reunion

There stood the black dragon with his arm thrusted in-- no, through Stone's chest and into wall behind Stone. He kicked Stone off his arm with all three of his remaining legs, sending Stone's limp, and discarded body bouncing, skidding, and scraping across the floor. Stone's blood splashed onto the ground harshly until he came to a slow stop. The black dragon shook the blood off his left arm exposing a golden brace that came half way up past his elbow. It had an elegant crisscross of patterns with their design leaving enough room for his scales to breathe and for it to remain very nimble. These patterns seemed to flow and move with each shimmer of light. They continued until it reached the top of his paw, where a crescent shaped hole was, revealing a black scaly moon and where three five-inch blades covered his talons.

"How have you been, Spyro?" the black dragon asked calmly as if nothing significant had happened.

"Wha--what the HELL DID YOU DO!" Spyro yelled; his fangs showed fiercely under a tightly formed growl. "ANSWER ME!"

The black dragon looked back at the green youngling laying in his own pooling blood and answered, "Just getting rid of a rather annoying nuisance."

Spyro launched himself at the dragon with claws and teeth outreached only to find himself quickly disarmed with his cheek smush into the dirt and the black dragon standing predominately over him. "You never could beat me," the black dragon said as the shock wore off and Spyro started to struggle. "You need to learn to relax, Spyro," he continued as he lowered himself to eye level with Spyro. He stared into Spyro's eyes as their eyes lit up red then Spyro's eyes grew clouded by a black fog. Spyro screamed and began to fight back and thrash about harder, almost to the point of hurting himself. The black dragon finally let go of Spyro and watched with amusement as Spyro quickly backed away like a frightened kitten.

Spyro accidently bumped into the wall and let out another scream. He spun around and clawed and the wall before trying to bite it, only succeeding in smashing his snout against the wall. Then he took off in another direction. His feet, tail, and wings flailed erratically. His feet would claw at the ground with every step he took; he would attack the air every time his wings would flap; every time his tail stuck the ground, he would spin around to bite what was there. Each time he would let out another deafening scream. Until he reached another wall, he struck out, clawing at it, almost climbing it before jumping off backwards, smashing his head against the floor, rolling over himself and landing painful onto his back with a loud echoing thud. The speed of which he spun back to his feet almost broke his wing as he continued his rampage.

"Crimson, what did you do to him," Cynder nearly whispered, horrified as she watched her mate in such a frenzied state.

The black dragon finally took notice of the beautiful black dragoness in front of him. "Cynder, you look beautiful, especially with that lovely scar," Crimson said as he dragged the underside of one of the blades gently over the large scar on her chest. The cooling blood dripped from the blade into the crevice of her scar. Cynder gave a shudder of discomfort before growling at him. Crimson returned his attention on Spyro and smiled. "You like it? It's similar to your Fear but this is much stronger. I call it Nightmare, for how can you compare what you see with the true horrors of our minds."

...

Spyro found himself in... nothing. Everywhere there was darkness and emptiness. He looked at his foot and saw it so why could he not see the ground? Then he realized he could not feel the ground under his feet. He flexed his claws to test this idea and felt nothing. In a panic, he tried to remember quickly exactly what happened and how he got here. He remembered a scream then... there was... Crimson! Spyro jumped and went tense, ready for a fight.

"CRIMSON!" Spyro shouted in rage but there was no sound to his voice. "WHERE ARE YOU? YOU BASTARD!" he tried again; something was wrong with his voice. He took a step back and his footstep gave an impossibly loud, long, and hollow echo. At least he would still hear. A menacing and far too familiar laugh rose up from the darkness. Spyro's spine crawled fearfully as he saw two glowing yellow orbs. They grew bigger and glowed brighter until a face broke out of the blackness as if it was nothing but a fog. Its horns grew out curved and thick; its yellow glowing eyes staring coldly at the pint--sized dragon in front of it; its tough purple scales curved into a cruel smile. This was a face Spyro could never forget. This was the face of Malefor.

Malefor was three times bigger than Spyro remembered. He was so large that only his head and neck was visible; the rest of him was shrouded in the dark. He let out another chilling laugh that made Spyro's head vibrate.

Whether it was in fear or rage, Spyro let out a burst of flame as large as any mighty dragon of old. These waves of fire rolled over each other and grew into a great ball that shone bright enough to rival a star before it rushed mercilessly toward Malefor. However, something, maybe whatever had sapped his voice, quickly drained the inferno and the ball shrank as it went until it was little more than a tickle on Malefor's nose.

Malefor gave a snort of a laugh at that pitiful attempt at an attack. He inhaled a deep breath and hurled a wall of purple fire at the little Spyro.

Spyro was forced to shut his eyes and pull his wing up to protect himself from the conflagration. He hissed silently as he felt the edges of his wing sizzle. When the flames stopped, Spyro carefully looked up and saw that he saw now standing in a large ring of flames and that Malefor's oversized head had vanished. Looking around he saw there was plenty of room to move about and that he could see farther, he guessed but it was hard to tell when the only reference was the darkness. The darkness seemed to shift and move, as Spyro had to squint to watch it take form.

It twisted and heaved into legs, wings, a tail, and a head. It was a dragon; a dragon with black scales! "CRIMSON!" Spyro yelled silently passed the flames in anger. The dragon slowly turned its head and looked at Spyro. Cynder, it was Cynder he was looking at. She looked young, about as young as when he saved her from Malefor. She looked depressingly sad; her wings drooped so low they looked like they would fall off; her tail wrapped around herself in a pseudo--comforting manner; her tear--filled eyes stared back at Spyro in despair and regret. Spyro's heart nearly jumped as he saw her. At least she was safe and he wanted to keep it that way. Spyro almost forgot about the flames that lay between them. Just as he was about to cross the flames, they roared up, forcing Spyro to shield himself behind his wing again.

When he opened them, he saw Malefor sitting to the right of Cynder. He tried to yell, scream, anything to warn her but she just sat there staring at him as Malefor brought his axe--like tail up to her throat. Spyro began to panic as he was forced to watch as Malefor gave a horrifying smile and dug his tail deeper into Cynder's throat. His tail was colored bright red before he yanked it tail away, throwing Cynder's blood at Spyro, dousing the flames. Cynder fell backwards onto the floor in a permanent silent scream, her neck spilt to the bone.

Spyro's roar shook the very world they stood in. his eyes were shrouded by a nearly endless supply of tears. He began to glow a fierce purple then shift to an eerie black as he charged at Malefor angrily. He wasn't just going to kill him; he was going to destroy him, body first then his soul if he had one.

"Why--?" That voice stopped Spyro in his tracks. His eyes shot at Cynder with a mixture of shock, horror, and hope. "Why did you save me--?" Cynder's limp body rose back into a sitting position as if it was being pulled. Spyro started to cry in joy; she was still alive. However, his smile dropped when he saw the look of distaste and disgust in her stare. "You didn't even try--" Blood spilled from her throat with every word she spoke.

"No, Cynder. I.... "

"Don't you love me--?"

"You're my mate...."

"Then why--?"

"Cynder...."

"Why--?"

"Cynder, please...."

"Why? -- If you loved me then why didn't you try to save me?" before Spyro could answer she continued. "If you loved me then you would have saved me. I'm sorry; Spyro but you are no longer my mate." And with that, Malefor turned to walk away. Shortly after Cynder turned to follow, her tail swung straight out as a warning not to follow.

However, Spyro did not even consider heeding the warning as he began to chase after them. "Wait!" Just as he was about to gain some ground, his steps started to slow as if time around him was crawling undyingly. "Cynder, please. Don't go!" Then each step seemed to gain less and less until each step started to pull him farther and farther away. "Please, I'm sorry!" he just kept running forward; one step back, two steps back, three steps back. "Don't leave me!" four steps, five steps. "Please!" six, seven, eight. They were out of his sight now but he just kept going. Nine, ten, eleven. "Don't go!--"

...

Crimson's smile widened as he saw Cynder's indecision of what to. Whether she should attack Crimson and most likely end up like her mate or to go after Spyro and attempt to break whatever hold Crimson had over him. Crimson moved briefly to let a rampaging Spyro through. He seemed to be enjoying this far too much.

A furious roar bellowed from the crowd as Lavana jumped over the youthful dragons that had snuck their way to the front. "I've had enough of this," she roared and stared fiercely at the black dragon barely less than half her size. "How dare you come in here and attack our younglings."

Crimson looked up at the large red dragoness and said "ah, Lavana. I'm honest surprised that you became Ignitus' successor. Didn't you fail your training?"

"Shut it, you twerp or I'll crush you. And from what I've seen you'd deserve it."

"Brash, arrogant, hot tempered. The only thing you had over Ignitus was you were more powerful than him but you still loss." He started the laugh. "I can see that you still aren't qualified to..."

Lavana brought her foot on top of Crimson so had that it left an impact on the solid stone floor but all she managed to hit was a dragon size puff of black smoke. The puff of smoke seeped through Lavana's toes and formed incorporeal black dragons shrouded in darkness. They crawled and spread out to every crack large enough for them to get through quickly. Crimson's laugh spread with each dragon until the walls echoed with his appalling laughter.

"Well that defiantly interesting," Volteer said as he suddenly turned around and started to run down the hall.

"Where the hell are you going, Volteer?" Lavana yelled.

"An ethereal technique somewhat similar to the one we just witnessed should to some extent leave a vaporous trail for us to pursue. However, we have a rather short span of time in which we could employ to find him. I am quite curious how strong Crimson has become in a relatively minor time duration. I've never seen such a display of shadow prowess... "

"Shut up and get going. Terrador, get these kids out of here. Cyril, get out there and search the area. He still might be nearby," Lavana ordered but the other Guardians and dragons stood there dumbfounded. "NOW!" she barked, wisps of flame leaping from her clenched jaws.

Terrador tried to corral the startled younglings out of the hallway as they nearly jump over each other in panicked rush to get out of the area. When he tried to move Haze, she spun around and spat poison on to his paw. The strong acidic poison fizzled as it ate away at his paw and he recoiled. His paw burned badly as he scrapped his paw on the ground, trying frantically to get the acid off.

"He--he killed my Stone. My Stone, my precious Stone. I--I will kill him," Haze hissed before she ran off the nearest balcony.

"Damn it. Cyril, go after her. I'll go after that black bastard," Lavana yelled.

Cyril dashed after Haze and took off without slowing. His wings unfurrowed loudly as the air caught the membranes of his wings. The sound was echoed by Lavana as she was not far behind.

Cynder was brought out of her stupor when Lavana's foot slammed down causing the ground to shake. She quickly looked around and without thinking ran off in the general direction of where she thought Spyro had gone. If his screams and the damage were any indication, she was right. He had managed to quite far, into an old part of the original temple that had yet to be rebuilt. She could see the tears that caked his face. His body was badly cut and bruised and his left wing and hind leg were obviously broken but that didn't even slow him down as he struck out at a wall yet again. His right forepaw slipped, hitting himself across the face, and knocking himself to the ground onto his broken wing. He let out another scream mixed with a cry but something was different about his cry. It didn't sound like a cry of pain but more of a cry of sorrow. He quickly rolled over and bit down on the leg that had hit him. His teeth dug deep enough to gouge out more blood to match the patches of red that painted his body.

Cynder gave a short wince because worry overtook her. "Spyro?" she barely whispered but it was enough to reach what was left of Spyro's mind, unfortunately, he was too far-gone.

Spyro lunged as her with unrealistic strength and speed given his several self-inflicted wounds. Cynder, afraid of his feral actions but still determined to somehow save her mate, prepared herself for the collision. As soon as she felt Spyro's skin touch her's, she quickly wrapped her arms tightly around him, holding him in place. She could feel his broken but still very sharp claws scrap across her back and lower wings as if they were trying to pull her closer and push her away simultaneously. She could barely hold back a yell of pain as her back was nearly shredded. "I am here. I am here," she whispered continuously into his ear. There had to be a way to bring him back. Tears started to flow from her eyes and her body went numb from the weight of her despair. She never felt this hopeless and helpless before not even while she was under Malefor's control.

Spyro let out another deafening scream as he brought his head up then bit down on Cynder's shoulder. His fangs carved deep into her skin but Cynder felt nothing but a dull barely-noticeable pressure. Cynder could no longer contain herself as she pulled Spyro closer and began to cry. Her sobs were loud enough to drown out Spyro's beastly snarls and growls. She hoped with everything she had; she would have given anything to bring her beloved Spyro back.

...

Spyro ran until he could barely move his legs anymore. He felt so tried that part of him no longer cared what happen to Cynder and just wanted to rest. But as soon as those thoughts came up, he forced them back down. He had to find her - he just had to. He took another step, only to have his leg too weak to hold him and to collapse in fatigue. His legs throbbed painfully and his whole body ached. He tried to get up again but failed. Maybe a rest would be good.

"I am here."

After hours of dead silence from this place, it decided to taunt him with Cynder's voice. Spyro laid his head down finally for some much needed rest. He was tired. He was tired and needed some sleep.

"I am here."

This was it. This place, where ever he was, had broken him in the end. He was going insane and he didn't have the energy to resist it. Closing his eyes, he finally surrendered himself. Whatever happened to him now, He wouldn't resist; he wouldn't fight; he no longer cared....

Crying. He could hear a faint crying coming from somewhere. Who was crying? Spyro, although tired, tried to focus. It sounded familiar. He tried to remember; something about the crying irritated him for some reason. Cynder. His head shot up and he opened his eyes. Why was Cynder crying? He thought for moment that it was another trick of this place but after another quiet sobs he did not care. He didn't care if it was real, this place, or even his imagination; he would assure nothing would make Cynder cry.

Once again he tried to stand but was unable to get his stomach off the ground. That would not stop him; if he could not walk then he would crawl. Spyro threw his right arm forward with what strength was left in his arm and pulled his arm back, pulling his body forward barely an inch. It was enough for him, at least he was moving forward. He threw his left arm out and pulled his body forward again. He would get to her; he would see her again, whatever the means.

...

Spyro let out one final growl and released his teeth from Cynder's shoulder. She could feel Spyro's muscles loosen and he stopped clawing at her back. He stopped trying to push her away and held her tighter. His screams had stopped but he was still crying, crying louder than ever.

"Cynder."

Cynder was overwhelmed by emotion. Joy, pride, relief, love. She hugged Spyro hard and began to forcefully nuzzle him. And Spyro was starting to return the affection as he was refusing to let her go and returning the nuzzling weakly.

"Cynder, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Shhhhh - it's okay."

"Cynder."

"It's okay, I'm here."

They continued to stay there crying over each other's shoulder until they both passed out from physical and emotional exhaustion.