II

Cynder gulped at the sight of the once honored yet scarred dragon. Every nerve in her body was screaming while she continued to glare at Titan. Her stomach was also beginning to cramp as he moved an evil smile across his face slightly baring his teeth. Cynder had to suck up her fear otherwise she wouldn't be able to take the brutish beast down. She quietly took a deep breath before finally gaining the courage to speak.

"Titan!" she exclaimed, "By order of the Dragon Guardians I hereby place you under arrest for the rape and murder of innocent dragoness'."

Titan released a low chuckle and slowly walked toward Cynder, which made her limbs begin to shake. "Your one to talk, Cynder," he growled as he circled her, "Or should I remind you what you have done?" Cynder's courage was slowly vanishing each moment she heard Titan's breathing. She knew that he was much stronger than her and worse, she was alone with him. "If you need a reminder just look at my scars," Titan ran his claw across his all of his injuries. Cynder shivered as she glanced at them and remembered their last fight. "I have you to thank for these. Now no dragoness would ever even bear to look at me let alone love me. So now the one who did this to me must pay for her crime, for all of her crimes, with either her body or blood! The choice is yours murderer."

"I would rather die than let you have me!" Cynder hissed.

"Which I am willing to do, but are you willing to let your children become orphans?"

Cynder thought about her children back in the city. Fortunately they were safe so even if Titan killed her and went after her daughters Cynder knew that not a single dragon would ever let that happen. "You do not scare me Titan!" she hissed, "You will come with me or die!"

Titan chuckled once again then gave Cynder a nerve-racking glare. "Is that a challenge Queen of Terror? I warn you, you are making a very horrible decision by risking your life."

Adrenaline rushed through Cynder's nerves and she easily got her courage back. She laughed at the mutilated dragon's words. "I would never mate with you! I would get a disease from you!" She quickly stopped laughing and turned her tone to a serious one, "And shall I remind you what happened the last time we fought?"

"Your pride will get you in trouble."

"It usually does," Cynder said jokingly.

"So be it." Titan threw his entire body toward the black dragoness ramming her into the side of a tree. Cynder ignored the pain from the collision and looked to where Titan was. Titan was charging after her and she had little time to react. She kicked the tree she was thrown into instantly breaking through its thick trunk. Cynder jumped from the ground and lifted the tree high into the air. The tree's weight kept it falling to the ground and it fell on top of Titan.

Cynder landed on the ground next to the tree wait for a response. She got it within a few seconds when the middle of the tree exploded. Titan climbed out of the hole he created and blasted green energy he created by absorbing energy from the earth out of his mouth towards Cynder. Cynder drew her wind power and turned into a twister making the beam fly right past her. When she stopped spinning she shot acid from her mouth at Titan who immediately jumped out of the way. The acid hit the tree and burned right through its trunk making a wild hissing noise while it did so.

Titan landed on top of the black dragoness and easily pinned her to the ground. While doing this he left his head wide open for an attack and Cynder took advantage of this by head butting Titan. While he was blinded by her attack she bit down on his neck as hard as she could. Cynder's fangs cut through Titan's skin and blood rushed out of the wound into her mouth. The metallic taste of blood made the instincts of her evil self coarse through her at a quickened pace. The bloodlust gave her more strength and she sank her fangs deeper into the dragon's neck. Unfortunately she found out that she barely missed his jugular and Titan threw her over his body into yet another tree.

Titan stood up on his hind legs and kept his gaze on Cynder. Cynder stood back up on all fours and looked right at the injured dragon. Titan lifted his claw to his wounded neck and placed it onto the injury. When he pulled his claw away he looked down only to see his own blood. Titan's breathing became frantic and his eyes showed an anger Cynder never saw before. He went berserk and charged after her once again.

But this time Cynder stayed put, not moving. When he was nearly on top of her she reached for the back of his head using his momentum to push him to the ground then flipped her body over Titan. She turned to face Titan and saw that he was already standing up. Cynder quickly shot her tail blade at him, which pierced through his neck only inches away from the jugular. Dammit! I missed again!

Titan roared in pain and reached for her tail. Cynder disappeared into the shadows then instantly reappeared behind him. The black dragoness stabbed her tail through the mutilated dragon's back, which caused him to roar even louder. Blood sprayed all over both of their bodies as she dug her tail blade deeper into his flesh. Cynder moved her mouth to Titan's neck planning to end the fight quickly and put him out of his misery.

When she opened her mouth over Titan's neck there was bright light that flew towards them. Cynder looked up before being hit by a fire ball and was knocked completely off of Titan. Titan turned to attack the fallen dragoness but then a small creature ran up the earth dragon's back. The creature tied a rope around his neck and jumped down pulling the massive dragon down to the ground making a load crash as Titan's head cracked the earth below.

"Tie them up!" a female voice ordered. Two others ran to aide the other in tying up Titan. But Cynder was surprised when they shackled him with the same green chain Malefor used to tie her and Spyro together. Cynder tried to stand up but was stopped when another creature appeared from behind her and shackled her to the ground faster than lightning.

Cynder looked up to face the creature and was able to get a perfect look at it as it stood up from the kneeling position. The creature was only about six feet tall and wore armor that she had never seen before. On the creatures wrists were leather vambraces that had a metal cross crafted into them, and its hands were covered by black gloves that didn't cover the fingers. Covering the creature's body was a black leather tunic with a metal belt going around the waist and boots that went over the leggings and was held on with many straps. However the creature's arms were not covered by the tunic and showed peach colored skin with a small amount of very fine hair covering the forearms. Cynder immediately knew what this creature was. Humans! she hissed in her mind. The human was obviously male and was somewhat skinny. He was in his early twenties and had a lean yet also muscular body. His face was angled and he had a squared jaw. His blonde, unkempt hair reached his ears and shimmered with sweat. But what Cynder saw next surprised her even more than the human himself, his eyes were covered by a black blindfold.

"Good work, Drake," the female said walking up from behind the young human. She wore silver armor that gleamed in the moonlight and had her head covered by a brown hood. However this hood did not hide her glowing orange eyes.

"What are we going to do to these ones?" Drake asked bowing to her. His deep, booming voice sounded so familiar to Cynder that it made her flinch at the sound of it. However she didn't know whom the voice belonged to.

"Well it's not everyday you catch two dragons at the same time now is it?" the female asked, "Hello dragons, my name is Naomi. I am the Overseer of Teirna Hold, and Hand of the Lords."

"Let us go you… you… oh whatever the hell you are!" Titan roared. A large human wearing Nordic armor grabbed Titan by the mouth and smashed him on the ground.

"Wolfe!" Naomi shouted, "Calm your brother!" As she spoke a white haired human wearing a black rawhide trench coat and a face mask came from behind and began to quietly talk to the massive human. "Now let's see… Two dragons. One female, and one male… I know just what to do with you two." The smirk that lit across her face made Cynder shudder at the thought of what her captors would do to them. But then she remembered the fact that multiple dragons have disappeared.

At this realization she couldn't stop herself from asking, "Are you the ones who have been kidnapping dragons for the past four years?" Every human looked at her with shocked faces and she realized that her tone was very sinister.

Naomi chuckled and took her hood off showing off her black hair that only reached her shoulders. "Clever girl you are." Naomi turned to her soldiers and began to laugh even more. "It seems the Lords' work has not gone unnoticed!" The other humans did not laugh with her but instead the brothers stared at each other. However Drake continued to stand motionless and breathing steadily in front of Cynder. Naomi quickly ended her laughter and turned her body viscously towards the downed dragoness. "Both of you will be sent to the Arena where you will fight for your survival or die."

"I'd rather fight for my survival now!" Titan roared and shook violently from his shackles. The green energy chain vanished out of thin air. Titan spewed energy from his mouth at the humans who easily dodged it and vanished into thin air. Drake however just stood and watched as Titan tore off the metal from his arms and legs.

Drake glanced back at Cynder than yelled, "Run! Get out of here Cynder!"

Cynder was very shocked and began to ask, "How do…"

"NOW!" Drake yelled as he charged after the now free dragon.

Cynder had no time to ask again. She also knew that it was best to run and get as far south as she could. Cynder looked down to try and remove her shackles but was instantly shocked when they were no longer there. Not even the metal braces where there.

Titan's roar made Cynder jump and look to see what was happening. The human created a firewall to protect himself from the dragon's earth blast. Cynder stood up and took to air as quickly as she could and flew south towards Warfang. She stayed in the trees so it would be difficult for anyone to track her down if they wanted to.

It seemed as if it was working but then all the sudden Cynder was rammed into and smashed into a large oak. Before she could stand up a dragon's arm was shoved into her neck and slid her up the tree. Splinters pierced her skin and felt as if bees were stinging her constantly.

Cynder tried as hard as she could to push back the attacker but the pain and loss of oxygen was siphoning her strength. She drew enough strength to face her opponent and wasn't surprised to see Titan glaring at her with bloodthirsty and lustful eyes. Cynder gasped trying to fill her lungs full of oxygen but no air was allowed due to Titan's strength. Titan began to chuckle maniacally and showed his satisfaction from Cynder's suffering. To further her suffering Titan lowered his head to Cynder. His breathing grew in intensity as he moved closer to Cynder's head. He silently chuckled before saying, "You're mine now."

His voice trailed off and Titan turned his attention to the dragoness' and quickly moved his mouth closer. Eventually after what felt like forever Titan ran his tongue up Cynder's neck, tasting his prize. The sensation drew Cynder mad and she thought of every way that she could escape. But she also knew that her time would run out soon, the air in her lungs was not enough to suffice for too much longer. An idea quickly entered her head and regrettably forced her hand to the area between the scarred dragon's legs. Titan was instantly lost in his hormones and pleasure came to him.

This is exactly what Cynder wanted. During his fantasy Titan's dragonhood erected and left it open for damage. Cynder took advantage of this and sliced it her claws. Titan roared so load that Cynder's ears started to ring. She then kicked Titan's new injury and sliced his wrist with her tail blade. Cynder ducked underneath Titan as he fell against the tree.

When she was finally free from Titan's grip she landed on the ground gasping for breath trying to fill her lungs as quickly as she could. Cynder turned to face Titan when she had enough air and enough strength to do so. Titan was still roaring in pain and holding his soft spot. Seconds later he lowered to his fours readying himself for another round with Cynder. This shocked Cynder as she thought Titan would be incapacitated for longer than a few seconds. She quickly noticed that the claw marks were below where Titan's dragonhood was sheathed. Damn I really need to work on my aim! she thought to herself, I must be really tired tonight.

"You'll pay for that one you whore!" the earth dragon roared. Titan stood on his hind legs and went to try and swipe Cynder. She grabbed the back of his claw and threw it passed her. Titan struggled to rebalance himself and flipped his head around to look at the black dragoness. Cynder snapped her right hind leg straight into Titan's face sending the massive dragon to the ground. She lunged towards the downed dragon. She, however, found out that her aggressiveness brought her trouble. Titan blasted her with a wave of earth energy.

Cynder soon found herself flying in the air with no stop in sight. That was until she crashed into three trees behind her. Before she realized what happened the trees fell on top of her and trapped every part of her body except her head. Cynder was yet again in harm's way. Titan chuckled loudly while stomping his way to her.

This entire fight Cynder only managed to get herself into situations that meant her death, or worse her submission. Everything she did Titan was able to counter. During her enslavement under Malefor she was never this weak, in fact she defeated Titan within seconds. But Cynder knew that it wasn't because she lost her power, it had to be that Titan trained for this moment for a very long time. She was not ready but he was. Cynder had to do something to get away or kill Titan. But to Cynder surrender was no option. She could easily escape from her wooden prison by using the shadows but knowing Titan's newfound skill he would be expecting that. She was too tired to be able to use her wind element except for defense. Poison isn't exactly an element she uses all that much and it requires very little strength to use so that would be the only viable power to use.

Titan's monstrous chuckling broke her out of her planning. He had multiple new wounds that were very deep and painful looking. The mutilated dragon had a bite mark on the left side of his neck and a stab on the right that went all the way through his thick flesh. There was another stab through his stomach. This surprised Cynder because normally a wound like that would kill any normal creature. How was Titan able to ignore his wounds and not just ignore the pain but also ignore the damage? Titan's other wound was a slash mark a few centimeters below where his soft spot is sheathed.

"What?!" Titan roared, "Not going into the shadows this time?! Finally giving up?" Titan began to laugh uncontrollably.

An evil smirk curved across Cynders face at his words. "Perhaps," she snickered, "Why don't you come over and claim your prize?"

Titan growled before saying, "You think I'm actually that dumb to make that mistake again?!"

Cynder had to force herself to keep from laughing. "Is the mighty Titan, victor of a thousand battles, scared of this poor immobilized dragoness?"

"Look the dragoness who is immobilized and you would understand!" The bloodthirst in Titan's eyes disappeared at his words. "The infamous Cynder, Queen of Terror, and mate of the Champion of Warfang, the only one who could best me in combat." Tears began to form in the scarred dragon's eyes and he shifted his focus from her to the ground. "I was once a great warrior, who never lost a fight. I was even told that I could even best Malefor himself in single combat. Then during a battle with the apes a black dragoness attacks me and tears me apart. And yet you kept me alive so I could tell everyone of your existence, so that by my words you could strike fear in their hearts. You did this to me and made me who I am today!"

"I take full blame for the scars Titan. But what you did to your life, that's your fault. You chose to live bent on revenge and it destroyed who you once were. You should've realized that at least you're alive. At least you have a second chance to make the difference. Well I shouldn't say have, you messed up your second chance and became the very thing you swore to protect Warfang from!"

Titan's eyes shot back up to meet Cynder's and almost instantly his bloodlust returned. "Now you die!" he roared. He jumped into the air and dove towards Cynder. She shot a blast of acid that hit Titan directly in his wound in his stomach. Cynder gathered as much energy as she could and moved the wind near his to push him into the sky. Cynder disappeared into the shadows and reappeared in front of Titan. He quickly realized what happened and moved to slash at the former Queen of Terror. Cynder ducked her head underneath his claws and twirled her body so that the blade on her wing would slash Titan's stomach. There was little resistance from his hide as it was cut by Cynder's serrated wing blade. Blood sprayed everywhere from the new wound and landed in Cynder's eyes blinding her.

Knowing that Titan would take advantage of this fact Cynder shadow stepped behind him and grabbed onto a tree as he fell to the ground. As quickly as she could Cynder wiped the blood from out of her eyes and spotted Titan. Titan was roaring with such ferocity that would wake all of Warfang. However the scarred dragon faced Cynder and flapped his wings. He was charging. Cynder readied herself for the blow from the charge and saw an opening to his jugular.

Right as she began to push off of the tree a wall of fire exploded in between them. The shockwave from the explosion pushed both of them far away from each other. Cynder slid across the soft forest floor slowly slowing down to a stop. When her vision finally came back she lifted her head only to see the wall of fire quickly dying out.

"It would be best if you leave her alone monster!" a booming yet again familiar voice said from behind her. Cynder flipped her head around and what she saw amazed her. Drake was calmly walking up beside her and wielding a staff with a sword blade on the end of it. This was no spear, however, this was what Cynder knew as a war glaive. A weapon only very high ranking human magic wielders use in close combat. And on the war glaive's blade was a word written in dragon letters. The letters spelled: shadow. "Cynder," Drake said, which startled her yet again, "I think it best if you sit this fight out."

"But…" she protested.

"No." Cynder had so many questions to ask but she chose not to ask until the problem at hand was taken care of.

"Do you have any idea what you're getting yourself into ape?!" Titan bellowed while lifting himself from the rubble of the fallen trees. "You are making a big mistake in challenging a dragon soldier in combat."

"Enough of this already!" Drake yelled. "Now I have no idea what this dragoness did to you, but you have to listen to me! If neither of you get out of here soon then you both will be captured again! And believe me, what my comrades will do to you comes nowhere near to as bad as what your kind can do! You get out of here and you both have the chance to live and start new. But if you ever try to harm Cynder I will hunt you down and kill you!"

"How do you know my name?!" Cynder hissed at the peace seeking human.

Drake snickered before saying, "Let's just say an old friend was very protective of you and could never stop talking about you."

SPYRO! He's alive! The thought of him being alive made every cell in her body melt in her happiness. But then came the knowing that he was in a place where rescuing him would be downright impossible.

Titan chuckled uncontrollably before speaking. "Well if Spyro asked you to keep her alive then you'll have to be prepared for a newsflash. I will have Cynder tonight, even if it means killing you."

"Not if I kill you first." Drake said calmly.

"We shall see." Titan jumped towards the human with speed that frightened Cynder. Drake flipped his weapon over his shoulder then to the right and a wall made of stone that slammed into Titan's side flinging him to the ground. Before Titan could even react Drake then swung his war glaive onto the ground, which made fire sprout from the end of the blade and shoot towards the downed dragon.

Titan noticed this just in time and slammed his claw into the ground making a wall of stone that blocked the incoming fire blast. The fire blast exploded Titan's shield and gave Drake an open window to strike again. He took advantage of this by running to the massive dragon. Titan slashed at the human, who was the size of his own arm but hit the staff part of the war glaive. Drake flipped his weapon downwards and then spun around faster the wind itself. The blade end of the war glaive stabbed Titan in the shoulder. But before the pain even got to the scarred dragon Drake pulled the blade out of his shoulder and spun around again. This time he slashed Titan straight in the snout. Blood sprayed out of the new wounds and Titan roared in agony.

Drake's war glaive vanished with a puff of black thick smoke. The human then punched the air in front of Titan and a red fireball blasted Titan in the face, sending him flying. Drake charged after the dragon at lightning speed and axe kicked the ground when he passed him. The air around Titan pulled him to be in front of Drake and slammed him into the ground. Drake flipped around to kick Titan but was then slashed by the dragon's claw. The human staggered back and noticed that Titan was getting ready to blast earth energy at him so he dropped low into a horse riding stance and lifted his arms up. A stone wall rose out of the ground and blocked the full blast of the energy.

Before Drake could turn around and put his back the wall Titan burst from the wall and landed behind the now helpless human. Drake turned around just quick enough to face Titan but nowhere near fast enough to be ready to block any attack. Titan grabbed him and pushed him against the wall. The scarred dragon raised his claw to make the finishing move when Drake's blindfold slipped off his face and revealed his eyes.

"Impossible!" Titan exclaimed. Drake then yelled at the stunned dragon pushing him off of him. The massive dragon unfolded his wings causing more air resistance so he wouldn't fly back as far. Drake jumped in the air and side flipped down into a kneeling position. As he landed on the ground flame whips appeared out of nowhere and slashed down upon Titan. Titan raised his arm in defense against the flame whips as the whips struck him. The whips made a hissing noise when they hit the once honored beast's arm slicing and burning his flesh. Luckily for Titan the attack did not slice all the way through his arm. He ignored the pain and lowered his arm to face Drake who was already ready for another attack. "It's time for you to face the truth!" he roared, "She doesn't belong to you anymore. You failed!"

Titan released a long stream of earth energy form his mouth towards the human. Drake stood up as quickly as he could, raised his left arm above his head like he was blocking an invisible weapon, and punched the empty space in front of him. Three streams of fire, one red, one blue, and one orange, launched from his fist once his arm stopped from its hitting motion. The flames spun around each other then, right before meeting the energy blast, combined into a purple stream of fire. When the beams collided an explosion was created and destroyed the surrounding trees and hit Cynder, who struggled trying to stay where she was. When she looked up Drake blasted Titan with another ball of fire. The dragon blocked the blast with his wing.

Drake's war glaive reappeared into his hand seconds before Titan slammed his tail onto the magic wielder. He quickly rolled away from Titan's tail then jumped over it to get closer his foe's front. Titan slammed his fist in the ground when the human landed from his jump. The shockwave from Titan's punch pushed the patch of earth that was in front of Drake and slammed him in the chest. The impact was strong enough to break ribs of any normal human but it seemed only to stagger Drake. Titan took advantage of this and moved to deliver the final blow.

Instincts took over Cynder and she charged after Titan when she saw this. With speed she never knew she had the black dragoness reached Titan and grabbed his neck cutting into it with her talons. The force of her attack shoved Titan to the ground with such force the ground cracked underneath him. Titan tried his hardest to stand from the impact but Cynder already grabbed his head and pulled him up opening up his neck to attack. Cynder placed the hook of her tail blade right where Titan's jugular was located and pulled. Because of the position of her tail blade all the veins in the mutilated dragon's neck got caught on the hook. Blood sprayed everywhere but Titan's screaming quickly ended and finally the once honored and praised warrior stopped breathing. Cynder let go of the body when it finally stopped twitching. It was over. Cynder's nightmare had finally ended. And now she had a way to find Spyro.

A/N: Sorry that this chapter such a long time. I was pretty busy plus I lost passion for writing for a little while. But now I'm back and chapter 3 will be released much quicker than this one. My new year's resolution for this year is to finish this story this year. Please leave a review and tell me how I can improve my writing abilities.

P.S. Author notes like this will be rare. Thank you reading and sorry for the wait.