First off, this is my first story, so it will get better as it goes. And a huge shout-out to my Beta Reader, 4Dragons. Thank you so much.

This story is a result of my stubborn insistence that the ending of The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon is both the best and worst ending of a game ever. Best because it is fun and dramatic. Worst because it leaves so many unanswered questions. Did Spyro and Cynder survive? Where are they? What happened to the planet? Is Malefor truly gone? Is he one of those weird ghost things?

This is also my answer to this website. The original title was If You Want Something Done Right because at that point nobody had done what I considered a good job at a post-game Spyro story. So now, a story most of five years in the making. Hobey-Ho let's go!

Chapter 1: The Road Ahead

The second purple dragon looked back at the tracks that he and the black dragoness that trudged next to him had left in the fresh ash that spewed from the volcano in the center of the burned lands. The two sets of tracks had started out straight and true with occasional places where they had flown over a steaming fissure or a group of grunts. Now due to the exhaustion of the two dragons they meandered back and forth across the vast plain of ruined soil.

Cynder didn't want to show weakness. She didn't want to show how exhausted she was so she pushed on. When she was enslaved by Malefor any weakness was punished severely, usually with beatings and burns. Cynder also didn't want to show weakness in front of Spyro. But she couldn't do it forever and eventually gave into her exhaustion slumping against Spyro. Spyro stumbled a bit with the unexpected weight, but he pressed on. They were a team, and right now she was relying on him. He couldn't give in.

Both dragons were relieved when they stumbled past a bend in the path dragged themselves onto a small peninsula that jutted out over the sea of lava that filled the Burned Lands. Despite the horrid, oppressive heat and the fissures that crossed over the earth belching jets of superheated steam or lava a few feet into the air, both dragons knew that this was where they could find respite. At the end of the peninsula a pillar of green crystal jutted from the earth. Spyro limped to the glowing rock and gently let Cynder drop to the ground near it. He flopped next to her exhaling in rugged gasps. "Go on Cynder," he managed between pants. Cynder's claw brushed up against the crystal and half of it immediately turned black. She felt a jolt of mana wake her up slightly but she was still in need of sleep. There was a flash of light as Spyro also drained the crystal.

"It's times like these that I sort of miss Sparx." Spyro said. He waited for Cynder to make a comment, but she remained silent. Thinking that she was simply too tired to speak Spyro continued. "He'd say, 'you'll notice that I can't shoot magic out of my face and yet I'm not tired.'" Spyro chuckled as he pictured his brother, but there was still no reaction from Cynder. "Cynder did you hear..." he stopped as he saw her, bent forward, her face to the ground. "Cynder are you okay?"

"Spyro I'm not sure I can do this," she said. She had her eyes screwed shut as tightly as she could get them. She was not going to cry. "I just have no idea if we're going to make it out alive or even save the world despite that." Cynder glanced at the other dragon. Spyro was quick to notice the streaks that ran through the ash that coated her scales. "I'm not sure I can do this anymore. I didn't want this! I didn't choose this!" Cynder knew instantly that she had said the wrong thing. Spyro stared at the basalt at his feet. His claws screeched as he tightened his grip in anger.

"Cynder I never asked for this. Five years ago I still thought I was a dragonfly. Then I met Ignitus, who not only saved me and taught me who and what I was, but he was also someone who I couldn't help but see as a father. Then I met you, and I found something else that I had to lose. I was never really friends with the other dragonfly children and I had never met anyone of my own species, and I had found both with you! Now the world is ending and almost everyone I care about is dead or headed that way! I don't want to lose them! I don't want to lose you!" He looked away from her and let a sliver of selfishness slip out. "I don't want to die."

Silence roared in Spyro's ears. He couldn't bring himself to look at Cynder. She had seen him at his worst and his weakest now. He didn't want to put her through this.

But when he gathered up the courage to look up at her he saw nothing but complete admiration in her eyes. "Spyro," she said gently, "I don't blame you. In fact what you just said makes me believe that you are the bravest dragon alive. You stand to lose everything, and you know you might die, but you are going through with it. That is amazing."

Spyro sat up and wiped his eyes. He realized now that he needed Cynder as a friend now more than ever, but something was bothering him. "Cynder there's something that I meant to tell you but never could, especially because we've been chained together. All of what I have done has been based off a... prophecy, and I have heard rumors amongst the guardians that this battle with the dark master will kill me. I don't want to die."

Cynder but her lip. She thought back to what she called her dark age, the years she had been controlled by Malefor, back to when he had first explained her purpose through a prophecy. She could almost hear his deep echoing voice reciting it now.

She remembered how he had explained that two dragons, chosen by fate and both with purple scales, would one day fight to determine the fate of the world. The two dragons would fight in the center of the earth, and whoever won would effectively destroy his opponent. One of the dragons would have a partner that would tip the scales into either direction, and that the partner would eventually lead to the destruction of both purple dragons.

Cynder thought for a moment. Since she had first heard it, more of it had begun to make sense, but other pieces still seemed nebulous and vague. She couldn't tell him he could die, and she definitely wasn't going to tell him that she might be the cause. And yet she wanted to tell him that she could tip the scales in his favor, and that it all wasn't hopeless.

"Back when I was controlled... worked for Malefor," she began tentatively, "he told me parts of that prophecy. Don't let it get your hopes up but..." she thought for a moment, "it says that you will triumph. You'll triumph because..." because I love you she finished in her head. She cursed herself silently. Why couldn't she tell him? This could be it, and she couldn't bring herself to tell him.

Spyro had a goofy grin on his face, and Cynder briefly thought that she had actually said the I love you part aloud.

"Nope, can't let that cheer me up." Spyro looked back up at the volcano and the floating isles that hovered in its heat. Cynder saw him relax. His shoulders slumped forward into a much more natural position. He smiled for a moment, but then looked at her. His voice once again took on a melancholy tone.

"Cynder I'm still a little afraid. Not of the battle, but what comes after," he said after Cynder opened her mouth to reassure him, "I've spent the last four years working up to this. The guardians have been training me my whole life just for this. What if after... they don't like me anymore. I could tell that Ignitus truly loved me, but I could never tell with the others. What if they were only doing anything for me because I was the purple dragon? What if after all of this they abandon me and I have nobody left?"

Cynder stared at him dumbfounded. "Spyro, you have a brother. You have parents. You also have me. Even if the guardians were pretending, which I don't think they are, I will still believe in you and even when you aren't the hero anymore I promise we will still be your friends."

"Will you still want to?" Spyro asked.

Cynder was shocked. "Of course I will still want to be your friend. What wouldn't I?"

"Think about it. Malefor was trained as a purple dragon to save the world, and he ended up trying to destroy it. What if I end up the same way?"

"You won't." Cynder said immediately.

"And why not?" Spyro demanded.

Cynder met his eyes and said, "Because you know the world isn't perfect, just look at Weights, Rafts, and Sparx, but there are good things in this world, things worth saving like Warfang, like the dragonfly village, like Sparx!"

There was a moment of complete silence, and then Spyro burst out laughing. "Thanks Cynder." Spyro yawned jets of fire shooting from his nostrils. "Man I wish we had some time to sleep. I'm definitely not going to win against Malefor if I'm this tired. Anyway c'mon let's go we have no time to waste."

"We have plenty," Cynder argued. "The Destroyer still has to loop around Avalar to complete the Ring of Fire. We did damage it with that little dam stunt. At the rate it's moving it should take at least another day." She looked around at the towering mountains that surrounded them, and the impossibly high Volcano that towered over them like a dragon hiding among moles. "If I'm wrong we should be able to see it coming, and we are close enough to Malefor to beat it there."

Spyro tried to argue, but Cynder wouldn't listen. "Sleep, I'll wake you in a few hours so I can sleep." Spyro opened his mouth to argue again, but Cynder cut him off. "Spyro beating the Destroyer to the mountain won't make a difference if Malefor kills you because you are tired."

As the purple dragon settled for sleep Cynder smiled in knowing that despite the potential for doom, there is no one she'd rather be with, and no place she'd rather be. Okay there were thirty thousand other places that she would rather be, but at least she was here with Spyro.

The part about a partner tipping the scales filled Cynder's mind. She knew that it must be her. She could tip the scales, but in what direction?

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