Act 1, Chapter 2

The next morning, at Hontus and Seraph's home..

"Hey Flame! Wake up!" Arthur shouted, shoving the red dragon's shoulders. Flame didn't wake up: he continued snoring.

"Dude, get up!" the green dragonfly demanded. Still no luck.

Annoyed, Arthur turned around and flew into the hallway and shouted for help.

"Hey, can I get some help over here?" Arthur asked.

After a moment, Blank walked up to the dragonfly.

"What's the problem?" He asked.

"Sleeping Beauty's the problem." Arthur replied, motioning with his thumb. Blank rolled his eyes.

"I'll handle this." The Orange dragon replied.

Blank walked up to the sleeping dragon and brought his mouth to one of Flame's earholes. The Orange dragon then took a deep breath and….

"WAKE UP!" Flame bellowed.

Instantly, Flame bolted upright with a yelp. As the red dragon righted him, Arthur shook his head in contempt.

"I could have thought of that.." The dragonfly groaned.

"Then why didn't you?" Blank smirked.

As Flame caught his breath, he looked between Blank and Arthur.

"What's the problem?" He asked.

"It's time to get up, dummy." Arthur answered. "We've got work to do, as usual." Flame sighed.

"Fine." He replied. "Give me a few minutes."

For the past six months, Flame and Arthur had been living in Glenhaven. When the red dragon told Arthur what happened to Tyrrany, the dragonfly could hardly believe it. The two boys renounced their loyalty to Bergan and decided to help the others.

Naturally, Flame and Arthur wanted to leave to find Tyrrany. However, Urobos, Spyro and Cynder wouldn't allow it. The two boys were told to stay in Glenhaven for the time being. Meanwhile, three of the Glenhaven Guardians, Hontus, Voden and Jules, left to find the girl in their stead.

Right now, aside from some eggs, hatchlings and cubs, the only Nonadult dragons in Glenhaven were Flame, Blankridge, Emerald, Ember, and a girl named Roxanne. The dragon citizens who didn't lose their children six months ago had become extremely protective of their little ones. A prime example of this was Mimet, Emerald's mother.

The Earth dragoness had become the ruler of the entire city, ever since the news of her father's murder spread around. Fearing for the safety of her two children, Mimet refused to allow Ruby to leave their home, or let Emerald fight with the adults. Emerald protested against this, but there was no changing her mother's mind.

The Water dragoness Seraph wanted her son Blank to stay out of the fighting as well, but Blank was far more assertive than Emerald was. The young Orange dragon refused to be forced to sit on the sidelines. His argument was that he didn't spend several years perfecting his combat skills to not use them. And no one, not even Spyro and Cynder, could change his mind.

Flame didn't have any reason not to, and nobody objected, so he decided to lend his aid. Roxanne, a lightning dragoness, and Ember, a Memory dragoness, were allowed to help too.

What were they all fighting? Crepsculi. Hundreds of them.

For the past few months, swarms of the disgusting black creatures stated appearing all around the Arcus Desert. Time and again, some of the creatures would try to invade Glenhaven. Whenever this happened, Flame and the others would have to fight them back.

Normally, Flame, Arthur, Blank, Roxanne and Ember would patrol the outer rim of the city's stone wall for a few hours. If any of them saw a swarm of Crepsculi approaching the city, then they'd immediately alert members of the city guard. Sometimes they'd spot a swarm approaching, and other times they didn't.

On this particular day, things were particularly slow. None of them spotted any Crepsculi.

Flame came to a landing on the southern part of the wall and sighed.

"Another slow day.." He said. The others came to a landing beside him.

"Damn shame if you ask me." Blank replied.

"What makes you say that?" Ember asked.

"No Crepsculi means no fun!" Flame and Roxanne glared at him, making the Orange dragon uncomfortable. "What?"

"FUN?" Roxanne yelled, glaring. "You think having to fight those monsters is FUN?"

"Well. It's good exercise." Blank replied. Roxanne growled.

"Typical Blank-headed Blanky! We're in the middle of a WAR, stupid! This isn't a game!"

"Oh, like you give a damn!" Blank snapped. "You're just helping out to look good for when Rune comes back!" Roxanne flinched.

"Shut up!" She shouted.

"Will you two please stop arguing?" Ember asked, stepping between them. "That's no way for any of us to be behaving right now."

"The kid's got a point." Arthur added. "I'm still not sure what it is that's got you two at each other's throats all the time, but could you give it a rest while we're on these patrols?"

Blank and Roxanne glared at each other for a moment.

"Whatever." They said in unison. Flame rolled his eyes.

The red dragon looked at the sky. It was Noon.

"Looks like are patrol's come to an end," He said. Flame then placed his goggles over his eyes and prepared for flight.

"I'm taking off." he said. As the red dragon prepared for flight, Blank and Ember waved to him.

"Bye." Ember said. Arthur flew after the red dragon.

"Hey, wait up!" The dragonfly shouted. Flame chuckled.

As the dragon and dragonfly flew across the city, Flame started thinking about one person: Tyrrany.

Flame hadn't seen her in six long months. He was the only other person who believed the White dragoness when she claimed that she was tricked into killing her mother. Bergan was a two-faced liar: He tricked Tyrrany into murdering Elenar, and then acted like the White dragoness was planning it all along.

Flame tried to get the others to believe Tyrrany's story, but nobody seemed to know what to think. Some of them, like the Deep Shadow Grail, believed that Tyrrany was a traitorous criminal. He and a few of the Glenhaven guardians wanted The White dragoness to suffer for her act of treason.

This is why Flame wanted to go find her himself: to save her from the others. He wanted to just leave right now, but he knew better. Some of the others were suspicious of Flame's intentions. If he just vanished, they would probably think he knew where Tyrrany was, and hunt BOTH of them down.

Flame sighed.

He had spent a large part of his life trying to win Tyrrany's affections, to little success. When Bergan sent Tyrrany, Flame and Arthur to Glenhaven to find that Nellie girl, the White dragoness threatened Flame with violence if he tried to pursue her anymore.

But then, one night, Tyrrany's attitude about their relationship completely changed, but not in a way he had hoped for. Tyrrany wanted to mate with the red dragon. And when he refused, She angrily forced him to do it, violating him.

But after that, when Tyrrany finally made peace with her mother, she apologized to Flame for what she did, and didn't even expect forgiveness. However, Flame forgave her anyway: All he wanted was to be with her. The two young dragons had talked about living in Warfang together, and having a slow relationship. One day, when they were ready, they'd go back to mating with each other.

However, it seemed that fate had different plans.

Flame shed a few tears.

Oh, Anny…

Arthur noticed Flame's crying.

"Are you okay, man?" He asked, concerned. Flame wiped away the tears.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"You don't seem fine." Arthur replied. "You're thinking about Tyrrany again, aren't you."

"So what if I am." Flame snapped. The dragonfly flinched.

"Whoa, easy, Flame. No need to get defensive about it." Flame looked away.

"Sorry."

"Hey, it's alright." Arthur reassured. "I miss her too."

"You don't miss her the way I do."

"I guess that's true…"

The two teenagers remained silent for a time as they flew over the city streets.

"Say, Flame?"

"What?" the red dragon asked.

"Where are we going, anyway?" Flame had a look of contempt on his face.

"We're going to see my Dad."

…

Ever since Anthony's involvement in the abduction of the children of the Glenhaven Palace was revealed, the Fire dragon was placed in the City's Jail. Mimet and the other Guardians had tried to get more information out of him, but Anthony refused to speak anymore than what he volunteered. And he didn't seem to care about being locked in prison either.

When it was found out that Anthony and Flame were father and son, the Glenhaven guardians became all the more untrusting of the teenager. Luckily, Anthony told the Guardians that Flame was completely uninvolved with the abduction. In fact, Anthony was surprised to learnt that Flame was even in the city at all.

Ever since Anthony's arrest, Flame had been visiting his father one or twice a month. Flame had mixed feelings about his father.

On the one hand, Flame knew all about Anthony's deeds in Glenhaven, and the younger red dragon wasn't too pleased. On the other hand, Anthony was still his father, and a much better parent to him than Bergan had been to Tyrrany over the years. And seeing his father crippled was painful to him.

Flame and Arthur arrived at the prison on the Northern part of Glenhaven. As the went inside, they were spotted and approached by a Brown Earth dragon. He was Jordan, the Prison Warden.

When Flame first started showing the desire to visit his father, Mimet told Jordan to be ready for whenever the young Fire dragon arrived.

"Good Afternoon, Jordan." Flame said.

"You're here for the usual reason, I presume." Jordan replied. Flame nodded. "Alright then."

Jordan nodded for pair of Cheetah guards to approach.

"Take Flame and his guest to see him." He ordered.

…

Anthony lied down on the floor of his dimly lit jail cell. He was stripped of his original formal attire, and his four ankles were chained to the wall. A muzzle was placed over his face, preventing him from using his Fire breath, but still allowing him to speak. He said nothing, and showed no emotion.

This was Anthony's just reward for aiding Bergan enact his plans. The Fire dragon had originally believed that he and his family would be able to escape retribution for his deeds if he continued to do as Bergan said. However, Anthony made the mistake of misinterpreting his orders, and was cut away from the Purple dragon's regime.

Even if Anthony had to suffer for his mistake, he will still do his best to protect his wife and son from harm. He told the Glenhaven Guardians that Flame wasn't affiliated with his father's actions, and he's been able to keep the location of the new Cybernetics division of the FTC hidden, thus keeping Melissa safe.

Melissa….Anthony hadn't seen his wife in so long. He was happy to be able to see his son every once in a while again, but the Fire dragon still wished to see his wife again.

Oh well. Perhaps he would someday…

As Anthony lied down on the ground, he heard someone approach and looked up. He saw his son Flame walk up to the metal bars, followed by Arthur the dragonfly and two cheetah guards. The adult red dragon got up to speak to his son.

"Greetings, Flame." He said solemnly.

"Hi, dad." the younger dragon replied.

The two guards turned to stand just outside the cell chamber, while Arthur stood over by the wall.

"I take it you're here for the same reason as always." Anthony stated.

"Yeah…"

For a while now, Flame had been trying to get his father to reveal the location of his mother Melissa. She and several other senior partners had gone into hiding ever since Bergan's scheme was revealed to the world. Anthony knew where they were. And Flame was trying to get his father to reveal the location.

Flame wanted to get this information for several reasons. For one, he wanted to know where his mother was, so he could go see her again. Another reason was, if he could get the location of the senior partners to Cynder and the others in Glenhaven, then maybe the Guardians would trust him more. And maybe, if Anthony cooperated with the Guardians, they'd finally let him out of jail.

However, Anthony was adamantly refusing to tell him.

"Why won't you tell me where mom is?" Flame asked.

"I've told you before, Flame," His father replied. "I have my reasons."

"What reasons?"

"If I told you, then how can I guarantee the safety of your mother?"

"'Safety'? Just what was she doing before Bergan went on his campaign of death?"

"I can't tell you."

"Of course you can!" Flame shouted. Anthony sighed.

"Flame, I don't want you of your mother getting hurt." He said sadly. "If I have to rot in this cell to keep you two out of harm's way, then so be it." Flame just looked at his father.

"I may be in more danger than you realize." the young red dragon said coldly. Anthony became puzzled.

"What do you mean?"

"Something happened a few nights before Bergan resurrected the Victiumirti. Something that, when he finds out, will make him want to hunt me down personally." The adult red dragon became concerned.

"What, son?" Flame took a deep breath. He approached the metal bars and whispered as well as he could.

"Dad, you're not going to like hearing this.."

"What is it?"

"Dad….a little over six months ago…Tyrrany mated with me."

The news hit Anthony like a boulder. He was so shocked, he fell backwards onto his rear side.

"You and Tyrrany mated?" He exclaimed incredulously. "What were you two THINKING?"

"You've got it wrong." Flame responded. "It wasn't with consent.."

If Anthony's mouth was free to move all the way, his jaw would have hit the floor.

"You…You mean to tell me that you…?" Anthony was struggling to form words, he was so outraged.

"No, Dad. It wasn't Tyrrany who was violated." Flame replied, defending himself.

"What?"

"It was me. Tyrrany forced me to mate with her. She overpowered me."

Anthony seemed to calm down a bit.

"As much as I don't want to admit it," the adult red dragon said, "That kind of action isn't outside of Tyrrany's potential. She was always a very aggressive girl.." Anthony looked back at his son. "…And you were always so smitten with her, so taking advantage of you wouldn't be hard for her."

"She changed after that night." Flame replied. "Once she finally made peace with Lady Elenar, she apologized to me for what she did."

"Did you forgive her?"

"Of course. I loved her. And I still do."

Anthony sighed.

"You should stay away from that girl from now on." He said solemnly.

"Why?"

"If you keep pursuing her, she's only going to hurt you even more."

"You're wrong, Dad. She's changed." Anthony glared slightly.

"Do you really believe she can change her attitude so easily?"

"You wouldn't understand!" Flame snapped, glaring as well. "You weren't there."

Anthony looked into Flame's eyes. The adult Fire dragon saw an unrelenting resolve in his son: the boy truly refused to give up on her. Anthony sighed.

"Fine." He said. "But be cautious, Flame: once Bergan learns what has happened between you and his daughter, he'll stop at nothing to condemn you to a painful death for it."

"I don't care." Flame replied. "Bergan can go fuck himself, fro all I care."

Anthony sighed. "I wouldn't say anything like that around him."

"Whatever."

After a short while of silence, Flame sighed.

"You're still not going to tell me where Mother and the other senior partners are, are you."

"No."

"Then I wasted my time, again." Flame turned to walk away. "Bye, dad."

"Farewell, son." Anthony said sadly. "Stay out of trouble."

The young red dragon scoffed and walked away, Arthur following close behind.

In a moment, Anthony was alone again.

The fire dragon sighed.

"So, Tyrrany and Flame have mated…" He said to himself, returning to the wall.

"I wonder if anything came of it. And whether or not Bergan will find out…"