A/N:

Third time with this disclaimer, just in the off chance you somehow managed to get here after skipping the other two stories. This fic is old. I rite betur nao - though I must say, Crystal 3 is a lot better quality than the other two. I don't believe I ever touched it with a rewrite more than once, so there should be less quality spiking in this one. Even so, don't judge me for any subpar writing, please.


Even in the darkest of times, there is always hope. But sometimes fear clouds our vision. Sometimes our strength gives out. And yet sometimes when all seems lost... a light shines through the darkness. And we are reminded that even the smallest amount of courage... can turn the tides of war!

"Break it."

A group of grublins stood around the crystal that glowed with an orange light. Inside the crystal were three dragons and a dragonfly. Two of the dragons were above the other entities, wings spread wide. The dragonfly and the other dragon were near us, and seemed to be frightened or shocked. All of their eyes were closed.

Even the grublins could feel the strange magic that emanated from the crystal. One of the grublins brought his crudely-made club down with a smash.

The crystal began to glow and crack up the middle. Voices that were trapped within the interior flowed forth, echoing in the chamber the crystal was in.

"Spyro! Crystal! Stop!"

"I... I can't..."

"Get close to me... now!"

The crystal shattered with a bright flash. The grublins shielded their eyes from the onslaught of light and crystal shards.

~~...~~

I felt my head being raised by a coarse hand. Its claws dug into me as it held my limp body up. I felt something cold coil around my neck and then fade away. My head was dropped back onto the ground, which dissipated what little consciousness I had.

"Spyro. Spyro, open your eyes! Get up!" I heard the whisper, but I at first didn't recognize the voice behind it.

"Crystal, wake up!" The whisper was closer now.

Despite my body objecting quite profusely, I managed to raise my head. "You sound different," I murmured.

It was Cynder who had woken me up. There was something strange about her. She looked different, sounded different... it was odd.

Around us were the glowing remnants of an orange crystal. I shook my head and blinked several times. It was beginning to come back to me. I could hear Spyro, Cynder, and Sparx's voices in my head, but the visions were blurry.

"Cynder... what happened? Where are we?" Spyro asked.

I turned to look at him and nearly jumped when I saw him. Spyro looked years older, and when I thought about it, he even sounded a bit older as well. I blinked and cocked my head. That's when I realized his voice was echoing, and the only light came from these chunks of crystal. Of course; it was just a trick of the light, and the echoing made them sound different.

"I don't know. It's all a blur," Cynder said to Spyro.

"Spyro?" I coughed from the dust and pulled myself up into a sitting position.

"Yeah. Me, too." Spyro said. He turned to me. "Hey, Crystal. Are you alright?"

I nodded and wavered slightly. "Yeah. I'm just a little drowsy."

"My head's pounding," Spyro complained.

"Shh! Wait! That's not your head... I hear it too..." Cynder said, her voice nearly a whisper.

I blinked and tried to focus on the sound. My head didn't even hurt and I could feel the pounding as well. It was like drums, and I could hear chanting mixed in with is it.

"What is that?" Spyro asked. "Sparx! Is that you?"

I gasped slightly, realizing Sparx was gone. I looked around frantically, but I couldn't spot him.

Fires began to light in small crescent-pots hanging off the ceiling, illuminating the room. The pots were strung from the ceiling with rope, and held from the rope at the sides of the pot with chains.

The fire revealed that we were on a stone island in the middle of a room. The platform was hexagonal. There were more hexagon markings on it, growing inward and getting smaller and smaller, until it reached the middle where the design of a sun was. A large chunk of the platform was broken off, and a small pathway led out, but the door at the end of it was shut and I couldn't see any means of opening it.

The rest of the room was merely a pit, with lava far below it. There were strange carvings on the walls, but they were unlike those found at the Temple. As more lights lit up, they revealed balconies near the ceiling, with strange, indescribable creatures on it. Some were grey, some were green. A few had wings, and their faces were distorted. They reminded me of the small insects in the swamp. The creatures looked like they were cheering.

"For once, I wish it was," Cynder said after a long pause. "What are they doing?"

"Let's not stick around to find out. Come on!" Spyro said.

"I'm with Spyro on this one. This place is creepy," I said, looking around warily.

Cynder began to walk forward quickly. "Ugh. What is your problem?" she demanded.

I looked up and gave Cynder a questioning look, then widened my eyes. "Uh, Cynder..." I said.

There was a collar around her neck. It was a silvery green, like a fish's belly, and there was crackling, green electricity coming out of it, towards me and Spyro. I looked down and realized I had on one of the collars as well! But I hadn't a moment ago... how in the world...?

"Oh, this can't be good," Cynder and Spyro said together.

An orc ran through the door and yelled out. He looked as if he was made out of vines twisted together, and was wearing orange armor. His tail was scorpion-like and he held a mace, also made of gnarled wood.

I looked away for a moment as some of the creatures popped out of the ground. Now that they were closer, I could see them more clearly. They were made out of dirt and vines, their backs coated in grass. Their glowing red eyes stuck out of their head in semblance of a praying mantis. Their weapons, ranges from swords to cleavers to axes, were made out of splintery wood, the tips sharp stone.

In the middle of room was a strange crystal. As I rushed forward to attack these... things... my collar crackled and dragged me back, allowing the creature to get an attack in.

Spyro used fire to kill one, while Cynder backed up and charged forward, knocking into one and sending it skidding and flying off the edge.

"AAAH! GET THIS THING OFF ME!" I screamed, running around in circles. One of the tree-things had jumped on my head. It was in the process of hitting me with the axe, but luckily it was the blunt side! I tried to slip the collar on me so I could run forward, but nothing worked. Finally, I ran to the opposite side of the chain and was forced to an abrupt stop. The creature went flying.

"Oww," I complained.

"Knock it off, Crystal, this is serious," Spyro said.

"Thanks for the sympathy."

"You'll be fine."

I gawked at Spyro. "He hit me repeatedly with an axe!"

Spyro sighed and shook his head.

"Don't you," I made a loud, drawn-out sigh, "me!"

Wisely deciding to ignore me, Spyro turned away and continued to fight.

The bridge that led out of the room suddenly broke as a rock from the ceiling smashed into it. Luckily, that cut off the stream of these odd creatures.

One strange thing I noticed about them was that when they died, they didn't leave behind a body. They disappeared into a black puff of smoke. It was easy to see that whatever these things were, they certainly weren't natural. But if they weren't natural, what were they?

I knocked one into the air, grabbed it, and slammed it back onto the ground. I coughed in the smoke that appeared and steadied myself as the ground shook. Just then, a pillar that held up the room came down, luckily not hitting us.

It was deathly silent after that. I walked forward slowly... something was very wrong here.

Just then, a giant hand came from the pit and slammed down, just narrowly missing me as I jumped back. A great lava monster rose out of the abyss below and roared. The monster was made out of molten rock, somehow attached to and held together by lava. He wasn't just big, he was massive, and he looked angry. And hungry.

"We have to break this thing. It's holding us down!" Cynder said, motioning towards the crystal that held us in place.

We ran over to it and began to hit the crystal, until with a blast, it broke. But the collars hadn't gone away!

"Why are the collars still here?" I asked, noticing the green crackle pulsating between the three of us.

"I don't know!" Spyro said.

A moment later, the lava-monster's giant hand slammed down onto me.